City of Dragons
by Auburn Waves
Summary: In a junk shop Karina finds the dragon statue. Falling asleep with it in her hand she is sent to Talia where she meets the prince of one of the only non-di Chimici cities in Talia. Welcome to Romula, City of Dragons.
1. Prologue

**This is my second fanfic, my first in the Stravaganza category. I hope you enjoy it. If you enjoyed this check out my other story "THE BOWLER TWINS IN NARNIA". It's a Narnia fanfic.**

**Prologue: The Boy in the Black Cloak**

It was with a heavy heart that the city of Romula watched the boat float out to sea, carrying their dead king on it. He had been the best and only king most people could remember, holding out against the di Chimici family for years.

Their cold faces were warmed by the blazing boat as it was engulfed in flames and the Romulans knew that their king was well and truly gone.

Among the crowd was a boy no older than 14 years of age. He wore a black cloak with a hood that covered his face and hid his tears as he mourned the passing of his father. It seemed that his family was destined to misfortune for his mother had died when he was young and his Uncle had been kidnapped and never seen again. He had no relatives now that his father had gone with a good amount of the family wealth.

The flames danced around the lifeless body setting fire to it. The gold and wealth was slowly disappearing through a growing whole in the wooden boat. It was soon followed by bits of wood and the Boy watched as the body of his father was taken by the sea.

"All speakers please come to the rocky ledge at once," shouted a woman's voice through the crowd. It was Jacquelina Moressmo, secretary of public occasions and organiser of major public events.

That was his queue, he moved silently through the crowd of citizens, hiding his identity from all with his long black cloak. It was warm inside his cloak, but not even that could rid him of the horrible emptiness he felt inside, as if a chilly wind had blown right through him.

"First," announced Jacquelina. "If our dear prince Rodrigo wishes to say something on the matter."

The boy with the black cloak lowered his hood to reveal the short, curly locks of white blonde hair that fell around his face. You couldn't mistake him for anyone else as everyone else in the city had dark hair.

He slowly stepped up to the rocky ledge that set him a few inches taller than the crowd.

"My father was fine king," he started. "And he did not deserve in any way, shape or form to have such a terrible fate befall him. We will all miss him so much, I for one know that nobody could ever replace him for us."

Rodrigo stepped down and pulled his black hood back up as the obituary was read out to the crowd. The citizens of Romula were truly sorry for their late king, but there was nothing any of them could do about it.

He scanned the crowd for a moment, there was no sign of the _Black Lionesses _and their black and red robes.They were a band of people who did not care much for the city of Romula. They were a guild of architects, their main purpose being communication with Remora, the city of Stars. Rodrigo did not like them very much, but the people did so they stayed.


	2. Chapter 1

**In the last chapter I forgot the disclaimer, I do not own Stravaganza or the world of Talia, but all made up characters are mine. This is a story that happens after the 1st book. I don't write very long author notes, but I hope you all enjoy it. **

**The Junk Shop**

Wylow Way wasn't the most frequented of places being run down and dilapidated in some parts. There was however one shop that stood out from the rest, it was painted a bright green colour and the way the paint dripped gave it that almost magical feel. The name of the shop was _Lauren's Junk Shop. _It was a new shop, opened recently by an old lady and her son.

Karina Podri hurried along Wylow Way, she like most people didn't like the road, but she had to pass it to get home. Her Mum and Dad both worked as doctors and never got out of their jobs before seven o'clock in the evening, sometimes later if they had to treat a patient before they came home. Atleast that was the excuse they gave to Karina although she guessed they stayed chatting to their work colleagues as she knew that both her parents were terrible chatterboxes.

As she walked she saw the junk shop, it stood out from all the other shops like black on white because of the vibrant colours. Being curious by nature Karina set off in direction of the junk shop. She stared in at the wide shop window and saw something that struck her as an odd object to find in a junk shop.

It was a small statue, a statuette of a dragon. It looked so beautiful and so lifelike that it just didn't look right in the junk shop. It was green with intricate scales and piercing violet eyes that made Karina jump back in surprise. The dragon stood on a pile of gold coins and jewellery that were so amazingly detailed that it was hard to believe that they weren't real.

Unconvinced she tried to find the door that was almost completely hidden by the paint, but eventually she found it and opened it. A small bell rang as she did and an old lady wearing a flower printed dress appeared behind the counter ready to serve her.

"How can I help you?" asked the woman who name badge told Karina that her name was Mrs L Sinara.

"I was just wondering what kind of a shop this was," explained Karina. "I have to say, this is the finest junk shop I've ever been to."

"Why thank you," said the woman. "Feel free to have a look around."

Karina nodded and made her way down the first aisle on her right, there was a good number of interesting items there, but none that stood out like the dragon she could see on display in the window at the end of the aisle next to a painting of a market scene and a teddy bear that sported a red scarf.

She walked as calmly as she could towards it, but even that was a brisk pace, it was like trying to resist a magnet that was drawing you slowly and surely closer. Finally she got there, but she hadn't realised she'd been holding her breath until she actually breathed. Karina stretched a timid hand towards it, slightly afraid that it would actually breath a jet of flames at her, but she really needn't have worried.

Holding it in her small hand she felt so warm and wonderful as if all her worries were but distant memories, there was just her and all the bliss the world could offer. Karina snapped out of her daydream and carried the dragon up to the counter to the woman waiting there patiently for her.

"I'll have this please," she told Mrs Sinara.

"Ah yes," exclaimed the woman as she passed the barcode under the scanner. "A fine piece of pottery, quite amazing really."

"Where did you get it?" asked Karina.

"Well it was a piece of rubbish saved from the bin. It was my daughter who actually picked this out of the skip at the dump when she went there to get rid of her last sofa," said Mrs Sinara as if she was trying to remember something that had happened quite some time previously.

"Is that why it's not worth that much?" asked Karina.

"That and the fact that it has been deformed, scraped here," the woman pointed to a thin line down the inside of one of the wings.

"Oh," said Karina thinking how silly it was to reduce the value of such a beautiful statuette just because of a line, but it was all the better for her as she wouldn't be able to afford it if it had a higher price.

"That'll be five pounds please," said Mrs Sinara printing out the receipt.

Karina handed over a five pound note and the lady handed her the statuette and it's receipt.

"Would you like me to wrap it in bubble wrap for you, so that it doesn't get broken?" asked the old woman behind the counter.

"Alright," agreed Karina and handed the figure back.

She watched patiently as it was wrapped up carefully in a layer or so of bubble wrap. Mrs Sinara then handed it back to her.

Karina swung her old red rucksack round, opened it and placed the statuette neatly inside on top of her purple furry pencil case. Then she closed her bag hiding the figure from sight.

"Thank you," said Karina as she left the shop.

"My pleasure," she heard the woman say before the door closed behind her.

-------------

Karina wasn't surprised to find the house empty when she finally got home, even though she had spent quite a while in the junk shop, half an hour atleast although she couldn't be sure. It was one of the places where time seemed to go so fast.

She climbed the long spiralling stairs of her big house to the first floor where her bedroom was the second door on the left. It wasn't a particularly special door, but inside was her room, it was really big, fitting a bed, a sofa and a work area with room to spare.

She set her bag down on her desk, opened it and pulled out the statue. She then placed it on her mantle piece with the other pieces of pottery that she liked alot that included a blue dolphin on a purple wave, a teddy bear's picnic and various other scenes and characters.

Although Karina had all the toys and things she could ever want, she always felt a bit lonely being an only child in a house where her parents were out for most of the day when she didn't have school. It was okay when she had her friends round, but she couldn't help thinking that they took advantage of the fact that she was rich.

"Oh well," she sighed.

The noise echoed around the room, something that had always slightly scared her really, but her fear was less now that she was 14 than it had been when she was younger. She put it down to her getting used to it over time.

Physically Karina was a skinny girl who looked more like an eleven year old than a fourteen year old and her height didn't help it seeing as she really was quite small compared to the rest of her year group. She had long red hair and bright green eyes that were really quite striking to anyone who hadn't met her before.

Karina was a clever child, top in most subjects and also a fast runner with excellent hand-eye coordination. She wasn't however particularly good with computers in the sense that if she tried to do something it was highly likely she'd end up doing something else entirely different, but if she was shown what to do, then she wouldn't forget it.

It didn't bother her anymore, nothing really bothered her really because of the neglect she had suffered from for years. Her parents were too busy with their work, their friends and their ever so precious dinner parties that Karina herself was strictly banned from because her parents didn't trust her to behave, even though she was a very sensible person when she wanted to be.

She picked up the statue off the mantle piece and sat examinig it on her bed. Without warning a bout of tiredness came over her. She lay back on her bed, still clutching the statue in her right hand, she fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 2

**I've decided that this is now set after the second book.** **Read and enjoy, maybe even review.**

**The Bellezan Lord**

Prince Rodrigo had shut himself in his room for a whole day since the end of the funeral; no one had been aloud to see him, not even his most trusted advisor and friend, Sagoro Dromi. Rodrigo knew it wasn't correct behaviour, but he had lost the last of his family, he had a reason.

He lay under his cover trying to get to sleep, but never succeeding. The same image always coming back to him, that of his father's body slipping helplessly beneath the crashing waves of the cruel autumn sea. Then is thoughts would turn to his mother or his uncle, about to face a terrible fate as harsh as that his father had.

He wasn't prepared to talk about the circumstances of the king's death with anyone. He didn't even want to believe he was actually dead and in his heart he held the hope of his father living, but in his head he held the knowledge that the king was dead.

Many times he heard knocks on the door and every time he would tell the person on the other side to leave him in peace. And of course they did which he was entirely thankful for. But that evening, there was a loud knock on the door.

"Go away," called Rodrigo.

"I'm afraid it's urgent," came Sagoro's voice through the door.

"What is it?" asked the prince still not opening the door to his friend.

"Have you forgotten?" asked Sagoro. "The Lord from Bellezza is to come here today. You agreed to wait for him at the gate."

Rodrigo gasped and throwing off his bedcovers, jumped out of bed and changed quickly into a more appropriate outfit. It was a red tunic over purple trousers and his old black cloak that he never went out without, because it had once belonged to his father and his father before that. So it went on the list of the _Kings with the Black cloak._

The prince unlocked the door and flung it open, charging out into the corridor to meet Sagoro. Sagoro was a man in his mid-twenties, a trusted advisor of the old king and a well known figure to the romulan society. He had dark brown hair as most people did and small, captivating brown eyes that suited him well. Sagoro wasn't a particularly tall man, neither was he short, but he was without a doubt, one of the cleverest men Rodrigo had ever known.

"Are you alright your majesty?" asked Sagoro, Rodrigo winced; he didn't like titles very much, especially titles given to him by his fellow romulans.

"Of course," he nodded composing himself. "Is my horse ready?"

"Yes my prince," replied his friend.

"Shall we go then?" suggested Rodrigo setting off at a brisk pace towards the main entrance to the palace.

Outside, the palace overlooked the _Piazza Leonora_ where he would sit most days of the week on the lioness statue and talk to the citizens, but as the prince and his advisor walked towards their horses, Rodrigo knew that he would probably never do it again. If he did, it wouldn't be the same as he noticed how many guards there were just to accompany him to the east gate where the Lord would arrive.

As the sun was beginning to set, spreading it's red across the sky to announce it was time for bed, the Bellezzan Lord came into sight. He had curly black hair that fell around his face and wore a black outfit. He was mounted on an elegant black horse that looked young and agile with a party of seven men following in his wake.

Rodrigo had met him before when he had come to visit them on behalf of the new Duchessa who had just succeeded her mother on the Bellezzan throne, that had been a few months ago. His name was Luciano, he was the assistant of Rodolfo, a highly respected man in both Bellezza and Romula, Rodrigo had also met him before.

The prince liked Luciano, because he was the kind of person who lived life to full, the kind of person that Rodrigo wanted to be, but he never had the chance, because being the only heir to the throne meant that he was constantly being watched, even in the times before his father had died.

The band of Bellezzans soon entered the city and the gates were closed again to keep away intruders and di Chimici spies who seemed to be everywhere, especially in visiting parties. Rodrigo despised the di Chimici.

The black horse stopped by the prince's.

"Your majesty," bowed Luciano. "Are we to proceed to the palace?"

"Of course," agreed Rodrigo turning his horse round and changing from a walk to a swift trot. "Follow me if you will, make sure you don't lose anyone mind you."

They made their way through the peaceful romulan streets where the last of the citizens were returning home to have a good night's rest. Rodrigo didn't spot anyone he knew, but then again, the part of the city they were passing through was not as familiar to him as other parts of the city, perhaps. Luciano seemed to be enjoying himself though and that was always a good sign when it came to guests.

Finally they arrived at the palace, it was a grand sight from the outside. Domes of silver and gold stretching high into the sky and intricately sculpted balconies and statues on the roofs. It was painted a pearly white colour and stood out clearly against the red sky of the late evening. The palace stood inside it's own little town called _Lutani_, built long ago when Romula was just built, to house the descendants of Romulus.

Rodrigo, his guards, Luciano and his men dismounted and entered the palace while pages took their horses to the stables.

"I keep forgetting how amazing this place is," admitted Luciano.

"Same here," said Rodrigo who had become so used to the sight of the beloved romulan palace.

The doors opened onto the entrance hall, a silver plated room lined with statues on each side to form a walkway and windows at the end that looked out to one of the many courtyards in the palace. It was a very impressing sight as was the whole palace really. The palace itself had been handmade and the statues also by one man, rumoured to have had help from a dragon. Although nobody had actually ever seen a dragon, the people of Romula were highly superstitious and believed in omens and portents.

These were the reasons for the Three festivals of Therene, the dragon protector of the city. The Three festivals were major events for the city and also major tourist attractions. The three had names of course, the first being the _Naitire, _the second the _Amore_ and the third the _Eternite._ They celebrated the birth, the love and the forever of the dragon.

Romula was a centre of art, home to a number of great sculptures and sculptors renowned for their work throughout the whole of Talia. Rodrigo had to admit that they were indeed very fine sculptures and many carved out of the precious silver.

"I come on the matter of the duty your father left you," explained Luciano. "You may not be aware of it just yet so I am here to make sure."

The princes frowned in confusion, did the Bellezzan Lord really think that he didn't know about himself being king? Surely not.

"Could we perhaps go somewhere a little more private?" asked Luciano eyeing his group suspiciously.

"But of course," Rodrigo obliged and led his guest through a door as the rest of his party admired the statues by the great Romulan sculptors.


	4. Chapter 3

**I give up, this is set sometime between the books, but I haven't decided which, probably after the third. I hope you all enjoy reading my new chapter.**

**The Stravagante**

The prince led Luciano into the music room where Rodrigo was much accustomed to playing many of the instruments including the luth and the grand piano which really was a striking sight. Coated in black gloss and polished to shine like the silver that bordered the lid and the stool.

Rodrigo was a big fan of music although his family were not great friends with the city of Volana, now ruled by the di Chimici. It hadn't always been like that, the prince remembered a time when he was about six and his father had told him stories of dragons and flying horses, infact it wasn't that long ago that a flying horse was born to the Twelfth of the Ram leading it to victory.

The di Chimici had taken possession of most of the city states in Northern Talia and it was well known to the independent city states that they intended to extend their reign further south, to Romula. They hadn't bothered the Romulans in the past, mainly because they were too occupied in trying to take Bellezza under their reign.

There had of course been attempts to sway his father in their direction at first trying to get him to sign the Republic contract and then after he refused, to have him married to a certain Cterina di Chimici, a beautiful woman as all the di Chimici women were, but for the king that had been the last straw as he was not prepared to allow some di Chimici girl to take the place of the dead wife he still loved despite everything. He had passionately declared that day to his son that he would rather his son grew up with no mother than a women from the di Chimici family especially seeing as there was no love from either side of the proposal.

His father had never since trusted the di Chimici or even given them audience when they visited, but he was to much of a diplomat to outwardly show his discontent of the family. He had as all rulers do, a certain charm about and not just because of his highly unusual fair hair.

Rodrigo never thought that he was anywhere near as charming as his father had been, but Sagoro's predecessor, to whom the young man was apprenticed had told the prince many times that his father had not always been so charming, the man remembered when the king had been just like his son, or so he said anyway.

It was the sharp click of the door closing that brought Rodrigo back from his thoughts to the moment at hand. Tall arched windows let the little amount of light left into the room and just light enough to talk to a person without feeling somewhat left in the dark, in both senses of the room was darker than normal as the autumn months drew on casting less light for less time and of course less warmth.

It was painted Red with black furniture such as a coffee table and a few comfy Romulan was a stage of black wood with red silk curtains that would be used for plays or any other form of entertainment. It was a very Romulan room in the decor although it lacked the dazzling sculptures of the entrance hall.

"So what is it that you want to tell me?" asked Rodrigo.

"Your father was what we call a stravagante," explained the ellezzan waiting to see what effect his words had on the young prince.

All the while Rodrigo probed his mind for what that word meant, he had heard it, he was sure, many times even, mostly by his father, but he had no recollection of it's actual meaning.

"Sravagante are people who travel between worlds and time," continued Luciano, he seemed a bit disappointed at the lack of reaction and took it correctly to mean that the prince did not understand who the stravagante were and Luciano realised the full enormity of the task he was set to do.

"There are many stravagante and they travel between this world and another that is further in the future from this one," said Luciano. "They use a talisman from the other world to stravagate. They simply fell asleep with it touching them and they would end up in the place where the talisman had first come from. Journeys made by stravagante seem to be only between Talia and Anglia of the other world. Your dear father was one."

Rodrigo wasn't aware of his mouth hanging open nor of the events that followed as he passed out on the comfy chair and was aroused about ten minutes later by Luciano. It didn't take the prince long to remember what the Bellezzan had said.

"So what are you saying?" asked Rodrigo his voice wrought with suspicion.

"Your father was not just a stravagante, but a protector of the balance between the two worlds and a friend to any stravagante who turned up on his doorstep," Luciano went on.

"What are you saying," persisted the prince.

"Before he died, he did something important for the stravagante, he took a talisman from this world to the other and we stravagante suspect that you will have an unexpected visitor in the next few days. This new stravagante will carry a statue like this with them," concluded the Bellezan taking the statuette of a dragon out of his cloak and handing it to the prince.

The young prince was so unbelievably confused as the Lord left him in the music room still pondering over what the Bellezzan had told him and thinking how it all made sense, the welcome seemingly unexpected visitors received, the bracelet he wore some days, but not others and how he seemed to have a greater knowledge of science than many of the best scientists in the country.

Rodrigo wasn't quite sure what to do as he sat thinking, but he knew one thing for sure, he didn't have much time before the stravagante arrived there, in Romula.

-----------

As Luciano left the music room and the somewhat puzzled boy he felt a stab of guilt. The boy had lost his parents, just like him and yet there was something he knew that could perhaps lighten the prince's mood.

Sitting in that typical Romulan room, it had been hard for the Bellezzan Lord to say what he knew about the stravagante, let alone what he knew about matters much closer to the heart.

Luciano shrugged it away as he made his way back to his party warning them of their immediate leave and by the time they got outside, their horses were waiting and they rode through the city to the visitors residence in the _Piazza del Ouvo_.

Luciano knew that he would have to stay there if he wanted to see the new stravagante, it was rather strange travelling by himself to find and await the next stravagante as he had never done it before without the help of another older stravagante. Then there was the Duchessa official visit to the city of Romula to attend the coronation that would take place shortly. He couldn't stop thinking of Arianna. Silvia, the old Duchessa would be there to with her husband, Rodolfo, under the disguise of being a rich widow from Padavia. Luciano had been sent ahead as always to make sure that there was no danger to the Duchessa's life.

They reached the residence as the last rays of sun disappeared beneath the horizon, turning the silver domes of churches, the palace and the cathedral a bright red. The party dismounted and their horses were led into the stables.

He decide he should get an early night and start searching the city for dangers the next day and he might even find the new stravagante, if he was lucky.


	5. Chapter 4

**I hope you like this chapter, Karina has arrived in Talia. Any way here it is. I hope everybody can enjoy this chapter, read and maybe review, but hey, enjoy anyway.**

**The Girl with the Dragon Statuette**

Prince Rodrigo woke up the next day it was still dark, not even the birds were up then. He sat in his warm bed covered in blankets and thought for a moment of his father, where was he now? Was the goddess looking after him? He wished he knew the answers to his questions, but he did not and he would never know. Some things are destined to be unknown forever.

He pulled himself out of his thoughts and got up. He pulled on the least grand clothes he had and of course his black cloak. Pulling his hood up, he went to the window where he could just about see the coiled rope that sat on a ledge just underneath his windowsill, it was his way of escaping the duties of the palace and his ever present entourage of servants and guards.

He leaned over and grabbed the coil before throwing one end down to the ground just outside the palace, the other end was attached to a sturdy metal ring in the wall. When he was sure there was nobody below he climbed cautiously onto his windowsill so that he was sitting on it. Then getting a firm grip on the rope, he launched himself away from the palace then started abseiling down the wall quite fast as he had become quite accustomed to doing it, especially in the few years of his father getting rather old and less able, before the incident.

He shrugged the thought away and landed firmly on the ground to in the _Piazza Leonora._ He could just about make out his surroundings in the morning gloom. The prince decided to set off along the _Strasse di Dracona, _a little road filled to the brim with superstition, it was said that hundreds of years before, when the town was first founded, that that was where the dragon lived.

The prince was willing to believe in the dragon and the goddess as there was nothing to prove otherwise, even though all the churches and the cathedral were dedicated to the boy and his mother, it was a pathetic attempt by the di Chimici at power over people. The churches and the cathedral were grand buildings, but not very visited in he sense of religion, most visitors came to admire the sculptures, the paintings, mosaics and architecture.

The morning was getting lighter as he neared the city gates where he could see the road beyond and for a moment wondered what would happen if he ran away, he didn't really want to stay in Romula, he had no family left, only memories and the city it self bore his pitiful past, full of woe and sorrow and he would like to escape from that, just once.

He might have gone ahead and carried out his plan that very morning, but for something that caught his eye, a girl who he could have sworn hadn't been there before. She looked rather peculiar against the backdrop of Romula with her long red hair, but he couldn't be sure it was a girl because of the trousers she wore.

"Erm.." he hesitated. "Are you lost?"

"What?" asked the girl as if she had been dreaming.

"Are you lost?" he repeated, sure by now that she was indeed a girl.

"Yes, no, maybe," she stumbled over the words as if she couldn't make her mind up.

"Well which is it?" he inquired.

"Yes," she replied certainly. "I think," she added as an afterthought.

"Where do you live?" he asked.

"In London, England," she replied.

"Do you mean Anglia?" he inquired.

"Maybe," she answered still in that unnerving, indecisive tone. "Erm...Is this a...dream?"

"Not as far as I know," he said. "But who's to say if anything is a dream or not?"

Prince Rodrigo realised that now was not the time for being cryptic especially as the girl now looked a bit afraid of him. Then it struck him, the strange clothes, the confusion of her surroundings and the surprising entrance. She must be the new stravagante, he thought she hadn't been there the minute before, he had been right, his eyes were not deceiving him.

He wasn't quite sure what to do at first, who would be if a person from another turned up out of the blue and you were supposed to be looking after them, but you had no idea what they were like. He reached inside his cloak to where he had stashed the dragon statuette and the girl reeled back afraid of what he might do. He pulled his hand out and revealed to her the statuette and she gasped and pointed at it, then opened her own hand to reveal an identical one.

"That statue," she whispered. "Where did you get it?"

"A friend gave it to me," he replied simply.

"I've got the same one," she commented more to herself than to him as if trying to convince herself that it was all true and that she wasn't just imagining it.

"Look," said the prince. "I believe that you're a stravagante."

"A what?" she asked.

So it really wasn't going to be as easy as he hoped and the morning had become much brighter as he had talked to the girl. He realised that he would have to get back to the palace before anyone noticed that he was missing and he'd have to get the girl off the street, what would people think if they saw a girl dressed in boy's clothes.

Unfortunately for him, the prince didn't really know anyone because of his restricted upbringing so he decided that he would have to take the girl back to the palace with him and then there was the issue of where he could hide her, but he'd deal with that later.

"Follow me..." he grabbed her hand pausing for he didn't actually know her name.

"Karina," she obliged and they set off at a run. "What's your name?"

"Rodrigo," he replied.

"Where are we going?"she asked.

"No time to explain," he muttered pulling her back along the _Strasse di Dracono_ and across the _Piazza Leonora_ then to the palace.

"We're going in here?" she asked not quite believing him.

"Uh huh," he answered and just as they came to the steps, swerved sideways around the wall to where the rope was dangling from the ledge under his window.

He grabbed it and passed it to her.

"We're not breaking in are we?" she sounded worried.

"No," he replied and urged her to start climbing.

When she was a good two metres off the ground, he started climbing himself and found that he was somewhat faster than her which wasn't very good as he had to stopping so as not to bash into her. They eventually reached the top to hear Sagoro calling out his name and banging on the door.

"What?" he called out as sleepily as he could, but by then he was wide awake.

"Breakfast is served your highness," called Sagoro.

"I'll be down in a sec," he replied.

He heard Sagoro leaving and breathed a sigh of relief, Karina was now staring at him as if she couldn't believe her eyes.

"Right," he said. "Help me pull the rope up and I'll find you somewhere to hide." When she didn't respond he added. "Come on."

Together they pulled the rope up and the prince stashed it back under the windowsill on the ledge. He then hurried around the room checking in places he thought were suitable hiding places for girls around his own age, but none seemed quite right. Finally he decided not to hide her.

"Look, I'm going to lock you in my room. I don't want you to go anywhere or do anything until I get back," he explained. "Okay?"

She nodded in silent agreement and Rodrigo went to the door.

He unlocked the door and as he swept out of his room, he could have sworn he heard her tell him to hurry, but he couldn't be sure. He locked the door behind him and started off smoothly down the corridor to the stairs.


	6. Chapter 5

**First I'd like to say a big thank you to Nia, the first person to review this story, second I hope you enjoy reading this next chapter. Lastly, sorry this chapter took so long, I don't use my computer over Christmas, it's good for you. **

**Also if you enjoyed this check out my latest fanfic THE FANG OF SIBERIA, a Children of the Lamp fanfic and eat some dark chocolate while you're at it.**

**A Familiar Place**

Karina had been surprised to find herself suddenly standing in the middle of a road, but not a road like the ones she knew with many cars always speeding down it. No, it was quiet, a quiet that Karina had never known in her world. And it was beautiful, a silence that touched the heart, but it was sadder than any she had known, but then she didn't feel much, not being attached to people because she never trusted them.

She had always avoided awkward questions by not answering, but replying with a question for the other person or pretending not to hear them. She was almost sure that it was because her parents never really spent any tie with her so she was quite a solitary person although she did have friends, but she didn't have best friends.

So when she found herself standing in the middle of a road in a breathtaking city, she had been stunned for a moment or two and then the prince, Rodrigo had approached her and she had been scared at first by his appearance and she had noticed the strange clothes he wore, they were very sombre and old-fashioned. They looked like something out of a medieval drama on the TV, but somehow, they seemed more real.

He had brought her to this palace where he had climbed in through the window and her mind whirred full to the brim with questions that she could not answer; where in the world was she? Was she in a dream? And why was she there? She now sat on his bed, statuette in hand lost in her thoughts. She was alone and not for the first time in her life, in fact she was so used to being alone that she didn't mind anymore, but it was different being alone in an unfamiliar place, but then again, it was familiar, she felt as if she'd been there before. It was like the distorted memory of a scene or place that nagged at the back of the mind, unrecognisable.

She knew that in someway the little dragon was related to this, but she didn't know how and right now she needed a bit of help, a random person appearing to tell her all the answers, to all her questions wouldn't go amiss.

"So little dragon," she whispered. "What now?"

Karina felt disappointed when the creature hadn't responded, but she didn't know why, what did she expect from a piece of pottery. Still she felt lonelier than she ever had before. It was one of those moments when she wished she had never asked the statuette and carried on with the hope that she wouldn't talk to it then, but when she did finally decide to talk to it, it would answer.

She waited for a while before finally getting bored of waiting and getting up to have a look around, first she checked out the pictures on the walls, they weren't photos, but portraits and she wondered how realistic they were.

The first few did have a renaissance kind of look and feel to them, that was Karina's favourite kind of artwork. She didn't like modern art because it didn't distinguish the real artists from the ones who pretended to be able to draw. There was also a kind of innocence and brightness to renaissance paintings. The rest seemed to become less and less lifelike as she went back along the line, they became more and more like medieval paintings or mosaics with a circle of yellow or white behind the subject's head.

Then she was drawn to the window where she could look out over the entire city, it was so beautiful how the morning light reflected off the silver domes of a cathedral in the distance. Hadn't she seen that cathedral before? Maybe.

The door opened and she could hear the prince's voice and a maid's voice, Karina turned round.

"No really, I don't need anything," he said backing into the room.

"Well if you're sure?" asked the maid.

"Certain," he replied closing the door on her.

Karina walked over to him as he turned round and his eyes darted to the statuette in her hand.

"So that's yours," he remarked.

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Right," said Rodrigo snapping out of his trance. "Girl's clothes. I'll have to get you some from the laundry room."

"You don't have to," said Karina sheepishly.

"Don't have to!" he exclaimed incredibly. "Of course I have to! What will people say if they see a girl in boy's clothes?"

"Where I come from, these are girl's clothes," she muttered.

"Still," he shrugged and ran back out the door locking it behind him.

"Oh great," she said to herself. "This really isn't looking so easy."

She sat back down on the bed and stared around the room, it was really tidy, just like hers almost as if he was never in his room, but somewhere else. Then again this was a palace, he had loads of rooms to go in instead of his own. His bed however looked very slept in as the covers weren't spread so maybe the aid hadn't been in yet.

-------

Rodrigo hurried down the corridor looking this way and that, making sure that nobody was around, he didn't have to be that careful going to the laundry room, only coming back as the servants might think he was going mad if they saw him with a girl's outfit or else they might think he was in love, not a good thing as Sagoro would keep bugging him about it.

It wasn't normal for the prince or king or any member of the royal family for that matter to go down to the washroom, in fact it was very out of the ordinary. He strolled along casually not making it at all obvious to the whereabouts of his destination so as to seem normal.

The washroom itself was in the lower levels of the palace, it was in fact just below the ground with a few tiny windows around the top of the room making it rather stuffy, not the kind of place he was used to.

There were servants and maids working away, minding their own business and getting the job they were supposed to be doing done. This was lucky for Rodrigo as he didn't really want to be seen, it would look bad on him.

He knew by studying the layout of the palace that the drying room was up a stairs on the other side of the room to the door of the washroom. He strained his eyes to see through the steam to where a light was on the other wall, he guessed it must be the staircase as the light was bigger than the windows high up.

He made his way discreetly to the other side and was relieved to get into the fresh air of the drying room where he easily found the dress rack. On it were mostly ladies dresses, but one or two of them were smaller, he picked one he thought would fit Karina best.

It was purple with silver flowers embroidered on it. It was a low cut dress with long sleeves and it flowed out at the skirt. It looked pretty fancy, but that was the only really suitable dress apart from a maid's which he didn't like the idea of.

He tucked it inside his cloak so that it wasn't visible and made his way back out into the corridor.

He was almost at his room when Sagoro popped up.

"Lord Luciano is here," he announced.

"Oh," said Rodrigo so surprised that he almost dropped the dress, he had completely forgotten about the Bellezzan visitor until then. "I'll be down in a second. Get him to wait in the drawing room."

"Very good sir," muttered Sagoro clearly not convinced, but luckily he did pursue his enquiry.

Rodrigo unlocked his room and hurried in.


	7. Chapter 6

**Sorry I haven't updated for a while, I've been preparing a lot of presentations. Here's the next chapter, I hope you all read and enjoy it.**

**A Dress and a Spy**

Karina had been sitting on her bed lost in thought again when the prince had re entered the room in a hurry. Sure she had heard the noise of people talking and assumed it must've been the prince. That didn't stop her jumping when he came in though. It was like one of those moments when you know what's going to happen, but you still can't stop yourself being surprised.

"Right," he smiled. "Here it is."

He handed the purple dress over to her quite hastily as if he was in a hurry and she wondered why.

Then again he was a prince; they must have a lot to do especially at a time like this when they hadn't even invented electricity. She looked over at the candle for a moment and sighed. Although she hadn't been happy at home, she had been comfortable. And of course she knew how to behave _normally._

"I'll leave you to get changed," he remarked.

"You're not locking me in again," she argued.

"Well I can't exactly have you wondering around the palace can I," he muttered.

"Why not?" asked Karina.

The prince muttered something she couldn't hear looking no longer at his shoes but out of the window into the morning sky. Karina realised that the prince hadn't looked straight at her at all since they'd met and he looked a bit down in the dumps. She also realised how unbelievably hot it was for the morning, but then she knew that they weren't in England.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Huh," he replied. "Yeah I'm fine. Right I need to leave now, I've got some important stuff to take care of. Don't go anywhere."

She frowned at him looking hurt.

"Don't," he insisted before leaving and closing the door behind him.

Karina heard the key turn in the lock and sank back on the four poster bed with a big sigh. She didn't like sitting around in a room all day and she really didn't like being told what to do by other people as she was used to being the leader in everything at Barnsbury Comprehensive from sports to the school counsel.

But she decided to put on the dress; after all, it was really very pretty. It fitted her like a glove. It even made her look pretty herself which wasn't hard, but Karina could never be bothered to do anything to make herself look good as she always had more important things on her mind.

Karina who had not liked having to wait in the room at all then walked over to the door. She tried the handle but it was no use; the door was locked again. She sighed and sat down on the bed again. She did not like being locked up and started to devise an escape plan. But then she reprimanded herself.

"I'm in here for my own safety," she muttered to remind herself.

But after about two minutes she was up again and striding towards the window where she had decided she would use the same rope they had climbed up earlier that day. She had roughly memorised their route. Then she realised she didn't actually know where she was at all apart from being in a city in a country with a hotter climate than England but a colder climate than the desert. And as any English person knows, that's not much to go on really.

She looked at her wrist where her watch sat and stared, it read five o'clock still, and she could've sworn that she'd been in the city for at least an hour.

"That's not right," she said quietly. "What is this place?"

---------

Enrico looked up at the grand buildings in the Strasse Almani, the city of Romula was so much like it's counterpart; Remora. To be honest, the retired and new thinking spy had been tailing a certain man who owed him money on a small job in town and was quite happy to find that Cavaliere Luciano Crinamorte was visiting.

He had found out from a variety of sources the actual reason. Everyone knew about the King's death and the little prince who would now step into his place. What a weight to bear at such a young age, it couldn't be good for the health.

It had been a few months or so since his last major job for the Luciano boy and he had hit on hard times as had quite a few people now that the di Chimici were imposing harder taxes on their cities and Enrico had stayed from their even though the big cities were his main source of income.

It was now in the morning Romulan sun that the spy had found himself trailing Luciano of Bellezza. The boy had always fascinated him from the curious time when he had had no shadow and then in the courtroom, he suddenly had one. It was so strange.

He knew that Bellezza was in league with Romula and so it was no surprise to the spy when the young man and his party turned up to the large marble steps outside the city palace. He shrunk back into the shadows so as not to be seen. He knew that he and the boy weren't exactly friends and he didn't want to cause any unnecessary trouble or attention for that matter.

Being a spy he never really liked to be in the spotlight. No he liked to stick to the sidelines where nobody noticed him and quite frankly, nobody cared. He was happy like that, but lately he had been feeling empty. He had lost Guilanna and it was only just sinking in now that he had killed his own fiancé. He never wanted to face it really.

Perhaps if he had done things differently he would be in a different position right now. What if he could have been rich? What if he could have fallen in love again? What if he could have been both? What if...

He shook his head and ignored the thoughts; he couldn't keep living in the world of what ifs. Not if he wanted to be a spy. Not if he wanted to get his life back. Or at least some of it. He knew there was a place in his heart that would always be reserved for Guilanna.

Luciano party entered the palace and the spy walked over to the fountain and sat down making himself as comfortable as possible. He had a feeling he was in for a long wait.


	8. Chapter 7

**So sorry, I have lot of work lately and I'm suffering from a bit of writers block right now so sorry for the delay.**

**A Harp Plays**

Karina wasn't happy, she wasn't happy at all. She didn't like being locked in room of any sort. And now she didn't even know the time! She had to devise a plan to get out of the prince's room she decided.

Then she remembered a very important detail, the rope at the window! It was so obvious he would never suspect it. And anyway, nobody would be looking for a girl abseiling the walls of the palace. She didn't know why he had a rope in the first place, but supposed the prince obviously needed to get away from this place too, sometimes.

She walked over to the window and peered down into the street, she could see the prince and a party of strangers, one of them looked extremely familiar, so familiar she thought she had seen him before somewhere. Somewhere at home. Was that possible?

She watched them disappear into the shaded interior of the building. Karina set about to haul the rope out of it's hiding place. It was a lot heavier than it she had expected and realised that the prince must have been doing most of the work last time. She felt a it ashamed at the thought, it made her seem really unhelpful. At least the prince didn't seem to mind.

She let it fall as gently as possible to the ground completely unaware that she was in fact being watched. Karina looked around, but did not see the man lurking in the shadows of a building in the street. When she thought the coast was clear, she hoisted herself onto the windowsill and jumped down abseiling the wall.

When she finally touched down in the beautiful, well-kept shrubbery of the front flower beds of the palace. She was soon out on the streets and it was much later than the last time se had been in the streets.

The streets were still cobbled, but now there were pedestrians in strange, normally poor clothes everywhere. They looked so strange and every now and again, she saw a person on a horse or a horse drawn cart. The people went about their business ignoring her. It was almost like she belonged.

But it was confusing and Karina stood frozen to the spot, worried that she might get lost. She didn't think it was possible to find her way back in such a big crowd. Her plan of earlier seemed so foolish, she had just assumed there would be no one about, but of course there would be.

Karina sat down on the side of the fountain and looked around still not seeing the scruffy character lurking in the shadows.

She dipped her hands into the water and felt a cooling sensation run through her body. It was such a relief from the hot sun. She already felt tired and exhausted and was doing everything she could not to fall asleep. It was no use. Her head began to droop at an alarming rate.

She was awakened by the sound of beautiful music. It was so enchanting that she decided to take a risk and try to find where it was coming from. She wasn't sure whether or not it was a good idea, but all she could think about was finding it.

She wandered down street after street navigating with only her sense of sound. She was getting closer, she could here it clearly now. Karina eventually rounded the final corner and was confronted by a sight that reminded her a bit of a concert, but here...

There must've been at least a hundred of listeners sitting quietly on the floor and listening to the sound of a harp. It sounded like a piece of music from heaven.

Even though it sounded so foreign, it reminded her of home, the place she knew so well. The place she had once sworn she would leave if she could. And now all she could think about was getting back home.

She made her way silently through the crowd to where could see a an, his skin dark, playing the harp. He was accompanied by a woman who looked happy and yet sad. These two were of course manoush.

Karina only just noticed the resemblance, but all her thoughts were far away. All she could think of was how soothing the music was. It made her feel sleepy. Karina sat down and slowly, but surely fell asleep.

------------

Enrico had tailed the mysterious girl all the way to the manoush and was sure she was substantial. But then she had disappeared into thin air, just like the boy, Luciano. Was this another one of those strange people that so intrigued and infuriated the di Chimici family.

-----------

Rodrigo led the lord into the sitting room and wondered why he had returned so early.

"Let's skip to the chase," said the lord. "As you know, the di Chimici have lately been trying to enforce a ban on "_magic_" in all major North Talian cities and as you may already know, in Bellezza, we will not sign the or reinforce the law and here we know your father was beginning to crumble under the pressure of it all."

Rodrigo was not happy about the remark about his dad and folded his arms with a slight frown.

"What are you saying?" he asked eyeing Luciano.

"We just want you to be secure in your position as ruler of Romula," replied Luciano sincerely.

A knock on the door. Rodrigo went to open it.

"Yes," he asked the servant who stood there.

"My lord," huffed the man slightly out breath. "There is a commotion in the street, a girl has disappeared into thin air. The people think it's a bad sign. They're asking for you to enlighten them as to what has happened."

"I'll be out there in a second," replied the prince then he turned to Luciano. "Sorry, you may wait here if you wish."

"Thank you," nodded the Bellezzan as Rodrigo closed the door and hurried away.

He wasn't going to the street just yet. He had to make sure that the girl with the funny clothes was still in his room. He had a feeling he would have to watch her and now...

Well she might have disappeared just as she had appeared that morning.

He fumbled with the key before finally opening the door. His bedroom was deserted. He ran to the window where he could see the rope snaking down the wall to the greenery below. He knew it was Karina and he wasn't sure what to do. Finally he decided he should go and talk to the people.

As he left, the rope still hung from his bedroom window.


	9. Chapter 8

**Thank you to the reviewers and thank you to the readers. Here is the next chapter of the story, enjoy! I got to writing it as soon as I finished the other one.**

**Return Home**

Rodrigo ran back down the stairs where he was intercepted by Lord Luciano. The prince wasn't really looking where he was going and almost ran into him.

"Sorry," he apologised quickly.

"No need," replied Luciano. "But I get the feeling that there is something you are not telling me. For example, you know who it is who disappeared, I know who it is who disappeared."

Rodrigo's mind raced, but then he remembered that Luciano was the person who'd warned about a person from another world. The prince was sure now that that person was Karina. He shuffled awkwardly not sure whether to tell everything. He finally decided that he should.

"I think I met the er... stravagante you were talking about," he started. "And she is called Karina. I brought her back here and left her in my room and I think she ran away. It might have been her who disappeared."

"Right," said the Lord. "In which case there is no due cause for concern. She'll be fine. Plus, she'll probably be back by tomorrow."

"I still have to talk to the people," the prince reminded Luciano when he didn't let him pass."

"But of course," replied Luciano slightly flustered as he stepped out of the way to let the young prince passed.

Rodrigo hurried away down the corridor until the Bellezan lord could no longer see him. Luciano stared at the boy who could only be described as an orphan. There was a feeling of empathy in Luciano as he watched the prince, for he too had lost his parents. Even though it may not have been in the same way and perhaps less severe, but they had both lost their parents.

----------

There really is no cause of concern for Karina for she was a stravagante and she had been feeling tired, it wasn't her fault when she fell asleep in the middle of the square. She did not have any idea of the actual panic her seeming disappearance act had created.

As a matter of fact she couldn't care less. She was pretty certain it was a dream as soon as she woke up in her bed, in her room, in the clothes she had been wearing when she fell asleep. She was relieved to say the least, but a part of her mind still seemed to scream it had been real.

Karina stared at the dragon in her hand and at the dark sky outside, it was the middle of the light. She could even hear her father's muffled snores from her parents room down the corridor. She had never felt so good to be back at home. And that was the truth for home was not a fun place. It was lonely and strict and she was always too young to go out on her own.

Karina carefully placed the dragon statuette back on her bedside table and climbed into bed to get some more sleep before she had to get up for school the next day. Even though she had been asleep for over eight hours, she was still really tired. She remembered thinking it was rather strange before she fell fast asleep.

---------

The next day Karina felt extremely tired despite having slept practically non stop since 5 o'clock the previous evening. She clambered out of bed, eyes barely open and carried out her normal morning routine.

Soon she found herself downstairs eating breakfast with her mum waiting impatiently for her to finish. Her mum was a red haired woman with dark piercing eyes and a stare that always annoyed Karina. It was like her mum was looking down her nose at her daughter. Her father did the same thing. It was only when she got high grades or the main part in a school play or musical.

A few minutes later she was sat in her mum's expensive black Porsche. Karina had to where plastic bags on her feet because her mother thought they were too muddy. Her parents were extremely strict when it came to keeping up appearances. It was one of the major rules of the household that everyone and everything should be well presented to visitors.

School was never really brilliant; Karina was not exactly popular, mostly because of how posh she was. She was also clever, never a great asset when it came to being a school child, but she was reasonably pretty. Still, she got by and still managed to keep her tremendous wealth to herself.

And she was extremely rich with several different bank accounts that all contained at least three thousand pounds each. Her parents had an enormous fortune, but Karina never really got to use it. She didn't even know the exact amount. All she knew was that they had over a billion pounds.

As soon as she arrived she went to her tutor room to meet her friends. The rest of the day passed slowly. Karina wasn't sure where shed rather be; the cold loneliness of her home or the boring loneliness of school.

On her way home she decided she might go back to the shop she had got the dragon statuette from. Looking in the window from a few metres away, she could see an old man talking to four students from her school. They were much older then her mostly. Karina had a habit of avoiding people from her school and she wasn't going to make an exception now.

So she veered away, giving the shop a wide berth. Karina continued on her journey home, the wind gone from her sails. Not even the good weather could lighten her spirits.

At home she found prince Rodrigo floating into her mind from no where as she examined the dragon statuette again, turning it over and over in her hands. There was something strange about the statuette. She was beginning to believe or hope at least that her dream world was real.


	10. Chapter 9

**Sorry this chapter took so long, but those of you who read the author notes will know that I don't write during the holidays, not on the computer anyway. I a making an exception for this story so be happy.**

**Before I forget, I would just like to say a huge great big thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far, they will e remembered and are as follows: **_**CartoonFan13, Surreptitiously Anonymous, Novindalf, Swetlana and sweetlilsunshine.**_

**Anyway as Pumba from the lion king once said, you've got to put your behind in the past, or was it you've got to put your past behind you...**

**Ah well, here it is, I hope you all like reading it.**

**A Threat**

The prince walked into the hall feeling extremely tired as he remembered how his very difficult speech had gone. Yes the people had been attentive and yes he had manage to pass it off as the result of the unreasonably hot Talian sun. It had been so difficult to do because he knew he was lying through his teeth to his people.

He knew that someone had disappeared and he could of sworn that two manoush were looking at him strangely as if they knew he had been deceiving them.

Still he was worried about what he would say to Luciano when he saw him again. He hadn't told the man immediately that he had met Karina. Would the Bellezzan Lord now think he was a liar?

It was always very confusing being a leader, if you said something to the wrong person then you were likely to start a feud or even a war between cities. Politics was a very dangerous game to get caught up in.

Rodrigo was surprised when he was approached by a servant.

"Your majesty," started the servant bowing low. "The Bellezzan Lord has left to attend to some urgent business involving his beloved city state."

Rodrigo raised an eyebrow, what was it that could be so important?

"Never mind," shrugged the prince. "Is he still in the city?"

"Yes you r highness," replied the servant. "He has retired to where he is staying."

"Right," muttered the prince absentmindedly. "Thank you, that will be all."

The servant hurried away and Rodrigo slowly made his way towards the stairs. He was feeling faint so he summoned a maid to bring water to his room.

----------

Luciano had been sitting quietly in the music room waiting for the young prince to return when he noticed a piece of paper lying on the floor. Walking over to examine it, he noticed it was addressed to him. He knelt down on the dusty floor to pick it up.

Opening it he began to read. The letter went as follows:

_Cavalier Luciano of Bellezza,_

_We are unfortunate enough to have to inform you of the disappearanceof the young duchess of Bellezza. We do have her and promise that she will not be harmed so long as you do exactly as we tell you to._

_Do not attempt to find us, we will find you and bring you up to date on what it is that is required of you. For the moment we merely wish for you to stay in the city of Romula and await further orders on the course of action you must take._

_P.D-C_

For a while Luciano stared at the writing as though wishing it to suddenly disappear.

There was no doubting who the letter was from; Phillipo di Chimici. The current Grand Duke of Tuschia had been extremely careful for by using his initials he had made sure that Luciano could not prove that it was him.

Luciano decided he had to make sure that it was definitely true. He had to find out if Arianna was really missing.

It was as he came out of the palace that he ran into none other than Enrico the spy.

"Can I ask you something?" inquired Luciano keeping the worry out of his voice.

"Fire away good sir," replied Enrico.

"Did you see anyone suspicious enter the palace?"

"Now that you come to mention it, I saw two mysterious figures this day here," he said. "One was a girl dressed in a simple, but obviously expensive dress. You see, she climbed out of a window and slid down a rope to the flower beds and patch of garden over there." The spy pointed to a rough position at the foot of the palace wall. "The second was by far less remarkable, he was a scruffy boy with a cut on his cheek and grubby clothes. He entered the palace through the door. He didn't strike me as palace folk."

"Right," muttered Luciano. "Thanks."

He handed the spy a bag of coins.

"Get yourself some new clothes," advised the Bellezzan Lord. "And take a bath...you stink!"

The cavalier then hurried away from the spy in a distraught fashion.

Once back at his apartments, Luciano took out what looked like a mirror to the untrained eye, but was really a communications device. He tuned it until the face of Rudolfo appeared.

"My dear boy what's the matter?" asked the old man looking slightly nervous.

"It's true isn't it," sighed Luciano sadly.

"What is?" asked Rudolfo.

"Is Arianna missing?" he asked a little panicked.

There was a long silence that was ever so uncomfortable. Finally Rudolfo spoke.

"Yes," he said quietly. "I'm afraid she is."

"I got a letter," Luciano held the paper up to the mirror.

"If we can find out what paper that is, we ay be ale to find out where the young duchess is being kept," suggested Rudolfo. "I also received a letter and I am carrying out various tests on it."

"It's from the di Chimici, Phillipo to be precise," Luciano pointed out.

"I guessed as much," replied Rudolfo.

"What should I do?" asked Luciano.

"Well..." the regent hesitated. "I think it would probably be best if you did what the letter says for the moment. Good luck, I'll contact you again soon. Oh and if you get another letter then I think it would e best if you told us."

"Alright," agreed Luciano as the man's face faded from the picture.

This was the first time Luciano had been sent somewhere on his own and now he felt that for once he really was alone. He wished Arianna was there with him.

**Don't you just hate it when nobody reviews? (This is a hint!)**


	11. Chapter 10

**Next chapter. Not sure how long it's been so don't ask me. Thank you to my reviewers of the last chapter. This is how we get the other characters in, so bare with me.**

**Friends**

Karina didn't know what to expect when five older students approached her as she sat down for lunch in the canteen. Some of them she recognised as the eco-warrior for the school. She was quite the celebrity, but not for all the right reasons; the school fencing champion and his second.

She always tended to sit by herself, unsure of why her parents had decided to send her here when they could easily afford a private school. Now she regretted her decision. She was half expecting a fight although the people coming towards her were strictly goody-goodies.

"Can we sit here?" asked the eco-warrior nicely.

"Sure," replied Karina moving her chair over, but she couldn't see how all six of them were going to fit around the tiny round table.

Somehow they managed it, but Karina couldn't help feeling remarkably uncomfortable and squashed. She shifted in her seat and continued to eat her sandwich. She was not used to people sitting with her.

"So what's your name?" asked the second girl.

"Er..." hesitated Karina not sure whether she should answer, but decided she should anyway. "Karina."

"That's a pretty name. I'm Alice."

"Georgia."

"Nick."

"Sky."

"Matt."

"So are you all on your own?" inquired Sky.

"Yeah...sort of..." Karina trailed off feeling slightly embarrassed.

"Do you play an instrument?" asked Georgia.

Karina found this a very sudden change of subject from what Sky had said before.

"Yes..." she muttered.

"What instrument?" asked Georgia.

This girl was seriously nosey.

"I play the flute," replied Karina, more confident than she had been only a minute ago. "I have been for many years now. Why? Do you play an instrument?"

The conversation was well under way and by the end of lunch Karina felt as if she had known these people her entire life instead of merely 25 minutes. She smiled brightly as she hurried in her way to maths. For once she wasn't as lonely as she always was.

Despite having felt so energetic for the last part of the day, walking home really took it out of Karina and she had to pause quite a few times to get her breath back. She was utterly exhausted. Who would have thought it was so tiring making friends? To be honest, Karina was feeling overwhelmed. She had only ever had a few friends in her life and suddenly five showed up at once.

She picked the dragon statuette of the table as she entered her room and threw it recklessly into the air. She was so happy. Luckily she regained her normal self in time to catch it again. She scolded herself for being so careless.

Tired and worn out she lay back on the bed still in her school clothes. She didn't even notice as she fell asleep with the dragon statuette in her right hand.

Karina woke up in the middle of a square. She looked around, it was like something she had seen in a dream. Looking down at herself, she noticed that she was wearing a purple dress that seemed to be of a time gone by for it did not look modern.

Memories came flooding back to her and she had to close her eyes for a moment.

This was Romula, the city of dragons. A place where she knew the prince and she also knew how to get into the palace. The only problem was she did not know her way back there. She had followed the sound of a harp and now she was hopelessly lost.

The sky was still quite dark, but the big buildings could be seen against the skyline. She decided she would have to try and get to the palace before the morning crowds arrived.

So Karina pushed herself up slowly, her back hurt. It was if she had been lying on the cold ground all night, but she knew it couldn't be so. She could've sworn she had gone back home. She would be prepared to bet her life on it.

Was this a dream then?

She had thought so last time even though it all seemed so real. It all seemed just as real this time round. Could it be possible that this was real? Surely not.

Her senses screamed to her that it was real, but her mind screamed it wasn't. The logic was non-existent. This could only be a dream.

Enrico had got himself a bed for the night, but things had turned ugly this morning and he had fled. He wasn't one to run from a fight, but he didn't want to cause trouble for himself when he did not know the streets of this new city very well.

He had set out very early on his walk and now he came to the square where the manoush had charmed so many with their music.

Enrico could hardly believe his eyes when he saw the red-headed figure picking herself up off the floor. He had seen her disappear with his own eyes. How could she just reappear.

Cautiously he stepped towards her, she was facing the other way. He took another step and another. He had heard of witchcraft and was not willing to take any chances. Then as the sun peeped through the buildings Enrico noticed something extraordinary. The girl had no shadow.

There should have been a black shadow stretching out behind her, but there was not.

For a moment he stared, but soon made up his mind. He was not a cold-hearted man and this poor girl needed help. He decided he should take her to the palace, after all that was where he had first seen her.

"Can I help you?" he asked kindly.

The girl spun round and noticed she had no shadow for she jumped into the shade.

"Erm..." she hesitated. "Do you know the way to the palace?"

"Indeed I do," he replied. "Would you like me to take you there?"

"Alright," agreed the girl carefully.

Enrico was glad he had had a bath the night before because he wondered whether the girl would have come near him if he smelt as bad as he usually did.

She smiled weakly at him so he offered her some water and she took it gratefully, but her eyes were continuously darting about. Enrico decided it was best to keep her out of the sun in case anybody noticed her lack of shadow.

"I'm Enrico," he introduced himself.

"Karina," she replied.

"Now, let's make haste," he said. "We want to get to the palace as soon as possible.

The former spy meant what he said. The sun there was, the harder it would be to conceal the obvious fact that this well dressed girl had no shadow. He sped up a little, but she kept up.


	12. Chapter 11

**This is a pretty fast update. I decided it was time we got a taste of the dragon riddled history of Romula.**

**If you like my story then check out my new one CATWALK,** **a **_**Cat Royal Adventure **_**fanfic. Just so you know, it is not about fashion. Also there is my **_**Children of the Lamp **_**fanfic called THE FANG OF SIBERIA.**

**Dragons**

Some people said that dragons still existed in the hills outside of Romula. Some claimed to have seen them and others claimed their ancestors rode them, but it was a little known fact that no man or woman of this world could even approach a dragon.

Well at least the was what the only book on dragons in the castle library said. It was a very depressing book with a knack for crushing people's spirit with merely the words on the page. Rodrigo found himself already in low spirits and he didn't want to pick up the book.

He would much have preferred to read one of the fairytales that people wrote about young maidens, handsome princes, evil dragons and hoards of treasure. That was saying a lot as he did not like those books either. He sighed and leaned back on his chair.

All night he had been looking for something that could help him understand the strange red-headed girl he had met on the street. All he had found was that tiny piece on dragons. Nothing else referred to another world.

The prince decided it was time to take desperate measures.

It was still dark, the sun hadn't risen yet, but he wouldn't have much time when it did. It was best to look around while others were not around. He got up and put the book back before slinging on his black cloak and hurrying from the library.

His father's study was not far from the library and Rodrigo had always known that his dad kept many an offending book there. Nobody had been in there since the man's death and seldom before, but Rodrigo had the key and he wanted to go in.

He ran as fast as he could through the corridors without tripping or falling in the dark. It was scary, but Rodrigo had never been afraid of the dark.

The study door loomed ahead of him, grand and majestic. He inserted the key into the lock and turned it. There was a soft metallic click to indicate that it was open. The prince pushed on the polished wood and the door opened just a crack. Rodrigo winced as it creaked on the rusty hinges.

He stuck his head round the door and squeezed into the room beyond. A musty smell came rushing to meet him and the air was thick and dusty.

He sneezed.

He didn't have a candle, but there was light fro the window so he was able to see even though the light was dim. There was a desk in the corner and on it was a piece of paper. Rodrigo shuffled over and picked it up, he would read it later.

There was also a bookcase with few books, all of which were very old and very faded. The prince picked one up and blew away the dust that had gathered on the front. There was a striking picture of a dragon on it with the simple word _Dragons_ as the title. He tried to open it, but the pages ust've have stuck together over the years.

He didn't try anymore in case he broke something and he didn't want to do that. Rodrigo decided that he had all that he wanted for the moment and made his way out, locking the door behind him.

He made his way back to his room and was surprised to find Sagoro knocking on my door.

"My lord," he was saying quietly.

"Yes," replied Rodrigo after he had stowed the book under his black cloak.

Sagoro spun round, he was slightly embarrassed.

"Th...there is a man downstairs with a girl who wish to see you immediately," Sagoro informed him, stuttering only on the first word.

"Who are they?" asked Rodrigo.

He was the prince so he did have to be cautious.

"Their names are Enrico and Karina," replied the man.

"Then I will see them at once," concluded the prince as his servant led him down the stairs.

There couldn't be another person by the name of Karina in Romula surely. This could not be a coincidence. He was going to give little miss Karina a piece of his mind and question her on where exactly she had disappeared to. He had had to give a public announcement, lying through his teeth for her. Not to mention sitting in the library doing research for hours and hours in the middle of the night.

He entered the second drawing room to find the two people. One of them he recognised immediately, the other he wasn't so sure about. Right now he wanted to talk to Karina alone.

"That will be all Sagoro," he said dismissively and the man left the room.

"Enrico and Karina I presume," said Rodrigo pleasantly then addressed Enrico alone. "Would it be alright if I had a word with Miss Karina alone?"

"Of course milord," bowed Enrico.

The prince handed him a couple of silver coins and the spy was gone.

"So where exactly have you been?" asked Rodrigo. "I distinctly remember telling you to stay in my room."

"Yeah well..." Karina trailed off.

As much as Rodrigo liked to think he and Karina were friends, there was an inevitable argument that followed in which both of them blindly argued their case regardless of whet the other had said.

When it was all over Karina told him how she had gone home, how she lived in another world and how she had woken up in the square. Then Rodrigo told her about the dragons and Karina immediately became interested in what he was saying.

The ice soon broke and they were chatting away like old friends and not arguing like old enemies.

It was the arrival of the Bellezzan Lord that put and end to their talk as Rodrigo had to go and see him. The prince had decided not too tell Luciano that Karina was back and told her to wait for him.

Though, as Rodrigo closed the door on Karina, he had a terrible feeling she might run away again.


	13. Chapter 12

**Okay so what do you think of this chapter? I really would like to know and I'll explain the irregular behaviour in the next chapter. Oh and sorry I haven't updated, I forgot I'd actually written this chapter. Then I thought I had added it to the story, but turns out I have not. Sorry for the delay. Enjoy**

**Witch!**

"Not again," Karina muttered to herself. "How did I get myself into this?"

How she had allowed the prince to trap her again was beyond her. She did not like being confined to a room at all. She would've much preferred to follow the prince to wherever he was going despite whatever consequences there might be.

She looked down at herself, she was still wearing the pretty purple dress from the day before. She had the overpowering desire to change, but unfortunately she had nothing to change into. Karina needed a bath and lots of shampoo and soap.

She had considered entering the palace through the window of the prince's room, but had decided that she should not reveal a secret entrance to her kind companion Enrico.

A knock came from the door and Karina moved towards it.#

"Who's there?" she asked.

"It's Enrico," replied the familiar voice from outside. "Would you like to come out?"

She hesitated. How mad would Rodrigo be if he discovered she'd gone again? Would he go as far as kicking her out of the palace onto the streets? She hoped not.

"Yes I would," she replied deciding to brave the wrath of Rodrigo.

There was a scuffling noise outside followed by the continuous chink of metal on metal and Karina knew that Enrico must be picking the lock to get her out. She listened and finally heard the unmistakable sound of the lock opening.

This had to be a dream, she thought as the door swung open to reveal the man. If it wasn't then why was everything going so well? Well almost, perhaps not the argument.

"Right now Karina," he said. "Let us go to...er...where do you want to go?" he asked puzzled.

"I don't know," she replied.

"Lord Luciano," said Rodrigo welcoming his guest.

He couldn't help noticing that the young Lord looked tense.

"Can I help you?" asked the prince.

"Indeed you can," said Luciano impassively. "I believe that you are harbouring a witch under this roof by the cursed name of Karina. I demand that she be brought forth immediately to stand trial for her crimes."

"What?" asked Rodrigo outraged and confused.

How dare that Bellezzan Lord come to the palace and demand that his protégée stand trial for being a witch, a trial Karina would undoubtedly lose. This man had the cheek to ask the prince to give up his friend to be executed.

"You heard me boy," replied the Lord.

"But I don't know who it is you are talking about milord," said Rodrigo smoothly. "I do not know of any Karinas under this roof and I'm sure that nobody else here does. Quite frankly I think you make impossible demands."

"So you wouldn't mind if I searched the premises?" inquired Luciano.

"Under whose authority?" retorted the prince. "You milord must realise that it is my territory upon which you are standing and if I so much as wave I will have servant to run a message to my men of arms who will run you through if not run you out of town at the least for the disrespect you have shown me today."

"I apologise then," stammered Luciano.

He must have sensed that the fierce little prince before him meant to carry out his threat.

"Yes," agreed the prince. "Now return to your quarters before I fetch my armed guard. And if you even try to lay a finger upon any girl who may or may not reside within the palace then I will see to it that you won't be ale to lay a finger on anyone again."

The Bellezzan Lord fled as fast as he could looking dignified.

Rodrigo watched him until he was out of sight before turning on his heels and running very un-prince like back through the corridors to the room where he had left Karina. As he ran he wondered what he should say. Should he tell her to return to her world and never come back? He couldn't, she was his only friend.

"Stop being so selfish," he told himself under his breath. "You have to do what's right. What's best for her."

When he saw her standing outside the room chatting away to that man she had been with he practically exploded with anger caused by worry.

"What are you doing out here?" he shouted.

"I don't want to be locked up like a..." she struggled to find the word. "Like a...a criminal."

"What if somebody had seen you?" he continued in his angry tone.

"More people will see me if you don't shut up!" she exclaimed grabbing the front of his shirt and pushing into the now open room.

She slammed the door behind her.

Enrico had followed them in interested to see what this was all about. He had never really seen a prince or member of royalty having an argument with a lady before. The reason for this argument was not clear though.

"I want you to go home and never come back," said the prince as calmly as he could manage.

"That's not fair!" shouted Karina. "I promise I'll be good. No more escaping."

"It's not you," Rodrigo replied seeing the comedy of the situation. "You just have to get out of here for your own good."

"No, I don't want to," she said stubbornly. "This is my dream so you have to do what I say."

"Do I?" asked the prince mockingly.

"Now either you go by yourself or I knock you out," he offered.

"Milord," intervened Enrico. "Perhaps I could take her ladyship to the hills that border this city, there is plenty a place to hide out there."

"I don't know," said Rodrigo, he didn't want to let Karina out of his site.

"Please," pleaded Karina.

"Alright," the prince gave in. "But we shall have to think of a way to get you out unseen."

"Why?" asked Karina.

The prince realised that in his haste he had forgotten to tell Karina about his encounter with Luciano.

"I am not a witch!" she said indignantly.

"I know," said Rodrigo. "But you're going to have a hard time convincing the people of Romula. I can't risk you getting killed. Please return home."

"I'm going to the hills," she said defiantly.

"Fine," agreed Rodrigo knowing in his heart of hearts that even if she returned home now she was just likely to reappear somewhere in Romula and he would not know where she was to help her.


	14. Chapter 13

**I am so sorry to all you people out there who've been patiently waiting and I know it's annoying when people don't update, but I just couldn't think of anything to write.**

**The Mountains**

Perhaps witch wasn't quite the exact term for what Karina was; accidental witch might be a more accurate term. It wasn't her fault she was here, she had been _chosen _apparently. That's right and not by a person, but an object. A very pretty little statuette which she had been told to keep close to her at all times during her adventures in Romula.

She took it out now as night approached and she and her companion were well into the mountains. The tall rocky walls closed in around them and great jagged peaks reached to the sky like the metal bars of a prison cell. Karina felt there was no escape from this place, but she knew there was, there always was. She could feel the statuette in her pocket.

Enrico rode next to her, his ragged and aged body looking somewhat younger in the pale twilight. There was great sorrow in this man's eyes and yet great passion in his heart Karina concluded. She guessed that in the past some terrible tragedy must have befallen him, though as to what it was she didn't know. She sighed a sigh filled with tiredness and pity.

They soon came to a small cave, pitch black against the night and triangular like a tent in the rocky mountainside.

"I think we should be safe here," decided Enrico wearily. Karina nodded silently. "Right, in we go then."

Karina didn't bother protesting as she was sure that sleeping in the cave was better than sleeping in the harsh whistling winds outside.

Entering, they decided that they would sleep on either side of the cave as Karina was due to leave anyway. With her fur blanket pulled up around her, he soon drifted off into an effortless sleep.

No sooner had she fallen asleep, she woke up in her bed surrounded by the comforts of her rich and lonely life. It took her a few moments to put two and two together and realise she was back home, not in the lonely dampness of the mountain cave.

She felt guilty remembering that she had left Enrico all alone in the cave for the night.

What could she do though, apart from fall asleep, which was definitely out of the question because, like it or not, she had school. She rolled over and dropped to the floor, her eyes feeling droopy. She didn't know why she was feeling so tired. Karina had had a good night sleep hadn't she?

She was soon ready and out the door, but she arrived at school with only minutes to spare before the bell went, it had been such a hike to walk the entire way. She slumped into her chair in tutor and tried to concentrate, but it was so difficult. She just felt so inexplicably tired.

Lord Luciano sat silently in his quarters, his heart just about slowing down and the adrenalin finally leaving his body in a state of sleepiness. He didn't want to think about anything, but worrying thoughts muscled their way into his mind.

What would the young prince think of him now? How safe was he within the city at present? Where was the young stravagante, and would he ever get the chance to meet her? Most pressing of all though was the question: how had the di Chimic known about her?

Probably not, not after that stupid errand that the di Chimici had sent him on. All for the sake of Arianna. He paused in his train of thought...Arianna. He loved her so much, it physically hurt to know that she was unsafe in the hands of the di Chimici and he, he could do nothing about it.

He poured himself a drink of water and took a lonely apple from the golden plate that stood nearby on a table. It looked so empty now reminding him so much of his own misery and despair. Luciano sighed a long deep sigh of hopelessness.

**I know it's short, but you've all been waiting such a long time. I'm so sorry about the delay. I am finding it difficult to write all my stories at the moment.**


	15. Chapter 14

**Inspiration is back. I just read **_**City of Ships**_**. Spoilers, but not big ones. Imagine that Charlie and Isabel were ill in the chapter where she meets them all. **

**Can you believe it's been over a year since I started writing this story and I'd just like to say thank you to the following people: **_**sweetlilsunshine, BlueChic, Lady Maeror and ElenaRosemary **_**aswell as anyone who has reviewed before that. So here goes with yet another chapter.**

**CafeAnytime**

It wasn't entirely unreasonable to assume that Talia was merely a dream, but Karina was determined for it to be reality. Talia was the only place she felt she had a best friend, despite having only known prince Rodrigo for two days. Then there was Enrico who seemed as trustworthy as they come.

She was still contemplating the situation when somebody called her name from behind. She swivelled round to see Sky Meadows as he was called and a girl she had never seen before.

"Hi," she said uncertainly.

"Remember me," he smiled. "I'm Sky, this is Isabel."

"Yeah, I do."

There was an awkward silence where nobody said anything and then Isabel came straight down to the point.

"We need to talk to you about...er...Talia," she announced.

Karina nearly choked on her own breath, but recovered just in time. How did they know about Talia? There was only one way to find out, she supposed, but it wasn't her who did any inviting, it was Sky.

"Come to the CafeAnytime after school," he suggested. "And we'll talk all about it over a cup of coffee. You look like you could really do with one."

She was suddenly extremely conscious of the way she might look in her sleepy state.

"Right," she said as the bell rang. "See you there."

"Bye," Isabel and Sky waved as they walked off together.

"Bye," smiled Karina despite her worries.

She had never been out with her friends at all. Just when she had thought there was no hope for her to have a social life, Talia steps in to save her. She smiled. _There's a first time for everything_ she mused in her head. What a good day this was turning out to be.

The day seemed to pass so fast that she soon found herself wandering joyfully through the streets of Barnsbury as if she had just fallen in love. Nobody would have guessed that she was excited about a meeting to discuss another world that she knew as Talia.

She was quite surprised when she turned up to see not only Isabel and Sky, but Georgia, Nick, Matt and Alesha. Were they all Stravagante? She soon discovered that they were except for Alesha, but she had met somebody from Talia.

"Well then," said Georgia. "I think it is about time that Isabel handed over that dossier we made for her so that she could tell who all the people in Talia are and whether they are good or bad. She might also want to know who the stravagante are in case she needs help."

"Wait," interrupted Karina. "I don't have a stravagante in Romula."

"What?" asked Matt. "What do you mean? Everyone has a stravagante in their city. It's how they could have gotten there in the first place."

"But I don't have a stravagante," she persisted.

"Then who looks after you?" asked Georgia.

"Rodrigo," replied Karina.

"Rodrigo," said Nick thoughtfully. "I know that name. Who is he."

"He's the prince of Romula," replied Karina. "But he's not a stravagante. He told me so himself, but he didn't tell me who had planted the Talisman. He just knew I was coming because this Bellezzan lord called Luciano told him. I don't quite understand him, because the next day this Luciano came back and demanded I be put to trial as a witch."

The group looked shocked.

"What is it?" asked Karina a bit worried that she might be thrown out of their group before she'd even really got into it.

"Luciano is normally one of the big hero's whenever any of us are chosen to go to Talia. Are you sure you know your facts?" inquired Sky.

"Rodrigo is not a liar," she said defensively. "If he told me that then I believe him."

"That's it!" exclaimed Nick. "I remember him now. We used to be friends when we were younger and we used to play together, but then my dad suggested a marriage between Caterina and Rodrigo's father and the old man got very angry and refused to speak to the di Chimici unless it was absolutely necessary. Have you seen his father?"

"No, I haven't," replied Karina pensively. "Strange isn't it. He seemed to be in charge of things though so, so maybe..." she trailed off as terrible thoughts entered her mind.

What if there was reason Rodrigo always wore black, a reason never looked her in the eye and a reason he always looked so sad? What if his father was dead? That silence on the day she had arrived seemed eerie and sad. Could it be that he had died recently?

"I have to see Rodrigo," she said suddenly.

"Wait a minute," Matt stopped her. "Aren't you in the mountains with that spy Enrico?"

"Couldn't I just think of the palace and then fall asleep so that I wake up there?" she asked.

"It's worth a try," concluded Alesha.

"Okay then," agreed Karina.

They continued talking about Talia and other things and soon Karina felt more comfortable with those six people than she had done with anyone else in her life.

On her way home she couldn't help grinning like a maniac. Perhaps wasn't as bad as it had seemed. Not when you went out and stopped it in its tracks so that it couldn't run you over like a worthless rag doll. She was really beginning to like her life.

When she climbed into bed that night, she wondered whether she should give stravagating a rest. The others had said it would tire her out and she was feeling a bit tired. Then she remembered Enrico would be waiting for her and realised how selfish she was being. She couldn't even try to go and see Rodrigo or else Enrico might get worried about her.

So she decided she would have to go back to the cave to see Enrico and tell him not to expect her the next night so that she could get a good night's sleep. A tired Karina clambered into bed with the statuette and soon fell fast asleep.


	16. Chapter 15

**Right, another chapter, it's been ages and I'm really, really sorry. I've just had so much to do. But I've finally updated. Thanks to all you people who have been patiently waiting for this, a long time. And sorry again. Enjoy **

**Previously in this story, in case you've forgotten:**_** Enrico has taken Karina to the hills on Roerigo's orders, after Luciano comes round insisting she be tried as a witch and burnt at the stake. He is being controlled by the di Chimici, because Arianna was kidnapped. Karina finds out she doesn't have a stravagante in Talia and realises that Rodrigo's father is dead.**_

**Explanations**

That night Karina fell asleep early and within the blink of an eye, she found herself back in the great mountains of Romula in a cave. It wasn't a nice cave, but then again what could you expect. She wasn't there for pleasure, she was there because she was in grave, grave danger.

Sitting up she saw Enrico who was still snoring sound asleep. She began to wonder just how early she was. It was light…ish. A pale stream of sunlight had found its way into the cave half illuminating the cave. Karina could make out the main features, but some parts of the cave were so immersed in the shadows, it felt evil.

Where Karina was sitting was one of them. As soon as she realised it, she moved. It was an instinctive thing, even though her rational thinking was telling her that everything was fine, there was an irrational part of Karina, her imagination, that flooded her with anxiety.

She decided to go outside for a few minutes because of the eeriness of the cave. It seemed so ill-boding with only her consciousness to keep her company. She didn't want to wake Enrico either, because he had been so kind to her. So she stepped outside. The mountain air was cold, a lot colder than inside the cave where the rock shielded her from the wind.

Outside though her hair whipped around her face, getting in her eyes and generally being awkward. As was her dress. She felt sharper though and more alert. Her instincts were kicking in again. It did seem silly that there would be any kind of murderer or criminal this high up in the mountain, but then what better place to hide from the law?

She shivered. Karina was beginning to like the idea of staying in the mountains less and less. Deciding once again to listen to the irrational part of her brain she ventured back into the cave. Not before checking behind her for any attackers or pursuers. She found none.

Only the horses they had tethered up the night before. The two horses were now lying quietly in the shelter of a rocky outcrop. They weren't awake yet either. She decided then to come back after her own breakfast and give them some oats or something to eat.

Relieved she went to start up the fire. It was getting lighter by the minute outside. But it was still cold so the heat from the fire was very appealing. She even decided to go and find something to eat after a while.

The packs Rodrigo had supplied them with were full of grain, oats, vegetables and some preserved meat. It was a little too early in the morning for meat Karina decided, so she went about making herself porridge using some water from the water skins and some oats from one of the packs.

She wasn't an expert at cooking and she preferred to eat her porridge half milk, half water, because the plain water one was less creamy and more runny. When then porridge came to th eboil she spooned it into two bowls. One for her and one for Enrico. Normally she would have suger with her porridge to sweeten it, but she had none. She just hoped Enrico liked plain porridge.

Karina went over to Enrico, she reckoned now was a good time to wake him up and tell him not to expect her the next day.

"Enrico," she said, he slept on. "Enrico," she repeated more loudly.

Still nothing. This guy was a pretty deep sleeper, that was not a comforting thought.

"Enrico," she shook him gently.

This time he came round.

"Whaaa…?" he asked groggily. "Ah, mademoiselle Karina," he said getting to grips with the situation. "Glad to see your back. I woke up in the middle of the night and you weren't here. I searched around, but you were nowhere to be found. I got a little bit worried."

"Oh right," said Karina handing him his bowl of porridge.

"Thank you," he said.

"You know this stravagante thing, well it means that I'm only here during the day. I go back to my own world during the night," explained Karina. "Sorry I forgot to tell you that. I just got caught up in all the _threat to my life stuff_. You know, as you do. But yeah, if you wake up again and I'm not there, then don't worry, I should be back during the day."

"Oh okay," said Enrico. "That's fine then."

"You don't mind if I'm not here tomorrow do you?" she asked.

"Why?" inquired the man suspicious.

"In my world its night time at the moment so every time I come here its like being active for a whole 24 hours," she told him.

"Ouch," he empathised.

"So I kind of want to take some time off and get a good night's sleep," she said. "And I also want to go back home as soon as we've had breakfast because I really do need to catch up on my sleep."

"So you won't be here today or tomorrow?" he asked.

"No," confirmed Karina.

"Okay then," said the old spy.

He looked down at his bowl and scooped up some of the porridge with his spoon. He cautiously lifted it to his mouth and ate it.

"This is good you know," he told Karina. "Very nice."

"Oh," said Karina surprised. "I normally have it with milk and suger."

Enrico eyed her for a moment.

"You are a rich little lady then aren't you?" he said impressed. "Then again you are the prince's fiancé."


	17. Chapter 16

**I thought you guys deserved another chapter sharpish after all the time it took for me to write the last one. So here goes: Enjoy…**

**Stormy Skies**

"Okay, first of all: I'm not the prince's fiancé," protested Karina. "And secondly, where I come from that isn't exactly a luxury."

"Whatever you say," said Enrico although his tone of voice was infuriatingly patronising.

He clearly had no idea about anything. She wondered where he had gotten the fiancé idea from. Had he used his '_amazing_' deduction skills or had Rodrigo said something. She would soon find out. It would just be another thing to ask him when she visited the palace the next day. Of course Enrico thought she was staying at home to sleep, but she had other plans.

"Still, this is good porridge," he repeated. "Have you fed the horses yet?" he asked just remembering what it was that he needed to do.

"No," she replied. "I was going to see to them after we'd eaten breakfast."

"Don't worry then," he smiled. "I'll see to the animals."

Karina was relieved, she hadn't really had much experience with horses until she turned up on the streets of Romula a few nights a go. She and Enrico had agreed that it was fine for her to return to her world as soon as she'd eaten her porridge.

She lay down on her bed and closed her eyes. Before she knew it she was back in London staring at the ceiling in her room. Karina turned to look at the clock. 12:30 it read on the clock display. That gave her what, seven hours sleep before she had to get up.

Making sure she had carefully placed the dragon statuette on the bedside table, Karina fell asleep again. This time though into a calm and dreamless sleep. No Talia this time.

The next night was the worst storm in three months. A gale force wind blew outside and the sky was awash with the harsh downfall of pouring rain. Karina tried to ignore it, but every time she closed her eyes, all she could here was the sound of a million hail stones on the rooftop.

She sat up in bed, frustrated, just as the first line of lightning forked across the sky. She nearly jumped out of bed in fright. Lightning was not something she liked and the accompanying thunder, which rumbled with the force of a thousand explosions, made her fingers clench around the blanket she held until they were sore with effort.

After a while, the noise faded from her senses as she grew tired and weary of the day. Finally she fell asleep in her large bed. But not for long. As soon as she remembered falling asleep, she was awake again in someone else's bed. It was harder than hers, but the four poster style told her it belonged to some important person.

"Urgh," came a yawn from next to her.

She turned her head to come face to face with prince Rodrigo. They were so close their noses were practically touching. Rodrigo opened his eyes and they locked with Karina's. He sat up with a start and shook himself.

"What are you doing in my bed?" he demanded.

"Er," Karina mumbled. "Just thought I'd drop by for a visit."

She smiled sheepishly. Rodrigo was still looking at her sternly.

"Out," he said. "Now!"

She jumped out of his bed onto the floor. Rodrigo was wearing some strange form of nightgown.

"Now if you don't mind," continued the prince. "Go and stand by the window and look out over the town so that I can get dressed."

"Right," agreed Karina.

She walked over to the window and stared out at the grey skies. They threatened a downpour any second. She didn't like it at all. Karina had only just escaped one storm, she didn't want to have to face another.

Karina looked out the window still, but she was ashamed at how tempted she was to look back at Rodrigo.

It wasn't that she wanted to look, but it was one of those things, when someone says don't look and you just burn with desire to do exactly that. It was especially tempting when she heard a thud followed by some strange Italian cursing, which she was sure meant that Rodrigo had fallen over. She managed it though.

"Okay," said Rodrigo, swivelling Karina round.

He was now dressed in his all black attire as usual and he certainly didn't look overjoyed to see Karina. In fact, he looked angry.

"I told you to stay in the mountains," he said angrily.

"Yeah I know but…"

"No," he interrupted. "I ordered you to stay there. Couldn't you follow those few simple instructions?"

"I have to ask you some questions," Karina defended herself. "That's all. Then I'll be gone."

"Promise?" asked Rodrigo piercing her with his black eyes.

She wanted to look away, but his gaze held her there like a magnet. She almost found herself falling into the depths of his soul for a second, but caught herself just in time.

"Promise," she sighed.

Rodrigo let go and his hypnotic hold on her broke.

"Well?" prompted the prince.

"Well what?" asked Karina still thrown by his stare.

"The questions," he reminded her.

"Oh right," she replied snapping out of her little trance. "Um yeah, um…" she hesitated for a moment trying to remember what it was that she wanted to ask.

When she did remember, she found herself faced with a problem: how do you ask someone whether their father is dead? Instead she decided on something else hoping to slip the awkward question into another conversation.

"Question," started Karina finally. "This is Romula right?"

"Yes," said Rodrigo exasperated as if the question was completely pointless, definitely not worth a trip back to the palace.

"Where I come from it's called Rome," said Karina.

She had recognised it from some of the buildings and while she tried to sleep the night before everything clicked.

"That's fascinating," replied the prince, but his expression said otherwise.

"So is this like the most powerful city in the country?" asked Karina

Rodrigo nearly choked on air. What a funny thing to say.

"No," he said. "That would be Remora."

"Oh," said Karina surprised. "Really?"

"Yes," replied the prince. "Is that all?" he sounded bored, these questions were tedious.

"Erm, no," said Karina. "What exactly did you tell Enrico as a cover story for me?"

That was when Rodrigo went an extremely bright shade of red.

"So you heard about that huh?" he said uncomfortably.

"Yeah," she replied.

"I had to give him a reason for me giving you all this protection," a flustered Rodrigo tried to explain. "So I went with the first thing that came into my head."

"Fiance?" asked Karina, eyebrows raised.

"Yeah well I ju…" he trailed off into an indistinguishable babble.

"Hey it's cool, I'm apparently going to be _married_," she used her fingers to indicate quotation marks. "To the ruler of Romula."

"You wish," replied Rodrigo.

They both laughed, before Rodrigo remembered where he was and the danger that Karina was in.

"Okay," he said grabbing her arm and pulling her towards the bed. "You need to go home. Now."

"Fine," agreed Karina shaking him off and lying down.

She went to get the dragon statuette out of her pocket. For a moment her fingers fumbled around before the realisation hit.

"It's gone!" she said, stunned.


	18. Chapter 17

**I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter and I hope you will this one too. Thanks to everyone who read and especially all those who reviewed, even after I left this for so long **

**Another World**

"Okay," said Rodrigo trying to sound calm. His voice was frustrated, hinging on panicked. "Are you sure you haven't got it?"

"Yes!" exclaimed Karina for thee third time in as many minutes.

The conversation was getting tedious, but she guessed Rodrigo was using it to distract himself from something. She looked at him. There was something he didn't want to tell her.

"Right," said the prince. "We haven't got a lot of options here. The nearest Stravagante is where?"

"Remora," replied Karina.

"Yes," agreed Rodrigo. How did she know so much about the Stravagantes. "Or Luciano," Rodrigo hesitated for a moment then quickly corrected himself. "No that's not possible. There's something up with that man," his voice quietened. "There are rumours, from the embassies. I don't know how reliable they are, but there are rumours that the Duchessa of Bellezza has gone missing. Nobody has seen her for days. The ambassador is saying abduction. My Giglian ambassador certainly thinks so."

"Poor Luciano!" exclaimed Karina though she didn't really know much about him.

Sure she had the odd piece of information (20 pages) from her friends, but that didn't mean she knew him as a person.

"Now is not the time to pity him," interjected Rodrigo. "We can't trust him at the moment. He is obviously under orders from, and I'm taking a real stab in the dark here, the di Chimici."

Karina gasped. Rodrigo stared at her. How could she possibly know about the di Chimici, he certainly didn't remember saying anything. As it turned out she had an extensive file on them from her friends at school. Especially from Nick, he had been one of them.

"Look," he said bringing the conversation back to the subject at hand. "I think I have an idea. I'm not sure if it'll work, but…"

He jumped up off the bed where he had been feeling sorry for himself and walked over to his desk. He opened the draw skilfully and looked inside.

"I don't know who gave you your talisman, but I have a feeling and it keeps getting stronger. Nothing I've found has disproved it yet," he told her.

He pulled his own replica of the dragon statuette out of the draw.

"I think my dad is…was a stravagante," a lump was forming in his throat. His dad hadn't been gone more than a few days. He couldn't get over the fact that he would never see his father again. Never hug him, never talk to him. Never hear his voice or his laughter.

Karina gave Rodrigo all the time he needed to recover. She was right, his father must've died and here was Rodrigo still aching fiercely inside from the pain and the anguish, still in the process of loosing a part of himself, forever. She sighed, this boy looked so empty, she wanted to cry for him and gather him into a hug. Tell him everything was going to be alright, but he was too strong at the moment; it would hurt his pride.

"I think my father left your talisman for you," he finally explained after several moments of silence. "And I think this one must be his. It looks just like yours. I think he wanted to help me figure it out now that…now that," tears were welling in Rodrigo's eyes.

He turned away from Karina to look out of the window into the stormy sky.

"I think," he started again, his voice slightly wavering. "That you must have dropped the talisman in your world. So if I use this I can get back to your house and replace it in your hand. Then it should appear here in Talia too."

"Right," agreed Karina. "But first let me draw you a picture of my room and my street. I live at number 14."

She grabbed a piece of paper and started drawing as accurately as she could, the place where she lived. It took her an hour before she was satisfied that the pictures were good enough. She handed the papers to Rodrigo.

His eyes were wide with interest as he stared at the pictures.

"This is where you live?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied then went on to tell him what colour everything was.

By the time Rodrigo was lying on his bed he couldn't quite believe where he was meant to be going, but then he closed his eyes and visualised everything he'd seen and everything Karina had told him. Before he knew it he was awake on the floor of another room, in another world, in another time.

He looked up to see Karina's deathlike body lying on the bed. The prince sighed with relief: he'd found the right place. Now to find the statue.

Arianna woke up somewhere dark, damp and mouldy. The air was stale and putrid. Where was she? Who would dare to kidnap the Duchessa of Bellezza? This plot reeked of the di Chimici.

She shook herself trying to remember anything about her kidnap. She had sneaked out to the canals, to her personal Mandola. She always loved being on the water, especially when she was driving her own boat. She had stepped in and pulled away from the sure in the dead of night. There was nobody about. Or so she had thought. She briefly remembered seeing something move further out in the water as she set off, but she had ignored it.

Arianna hadn't been on the river for more than five minutes when someone stepped onto the boat behind her. She spun round to face the person. He was mainly shrouded by a cloak, but before he had placed a foul smelling cloth over her mouth and nose, she had seen a smile. A smile so evil it chilled her to her bones, set her stomach to churning and made her want her foster mother there and father and Luciano to protect her.

Yes, she wanted Luciano more than ever now. She hoped nothing had happened to her fiancé, the love of her life. She shivered, someone was coming.


	19. Chapter 18

**Sorry this took so long, but I've got a lot of exams and stuff this year. I hope the next chapter will be up in the new year, but enjoy this anyway.**

**Number 14**

Rodrigo woke up flat on his face, he could feel his cheek pressed painfully into the carpet. That hurt badly. It was like he had been lying on the right side of his face for hours, but he couldn't have been there for more than a minute. He brought his hands forwards to push himself up. The carpet was soft to touch, but his limbs ached like he'd just run a marathon. He was beginning to seriously hate this stravagating stuff.

When he had lumbered to his feet he noticed that a hand was hanging down from the bed. It was pale with a few freckles. It was Karina's. He nearly fell over trying to stand up properly, but when he did he could see Karina lying peacefully on the bed. Her eyes were closed and her face held no expression if not ne of contentment. But she was completely still, still as death.

Panic began to rise in Rodrigo's throat. Was she okay? He leant over closer to check and remembered that Karina had told him that she would look dead.

He moved away again checking the bedside table and the drawer in it, but the statuette wasn't there. He moved over to the wardrobe, he doubted it would be in there, but it was worth a check. Plus, he had to be completely thorough in his search; Karina was relying on him. He opened the doors and peered in.

"Woah!" he nearly shouted, but stopped himself just in time.

There was the strangest assortment of clothes in Karina's wardrobe. There were skirts that looked like they wouldn't come further than the knee, really short trousers that wouldn't be any use in the winter and trousers made of a strange, coarse blue fabric. What kind of a place was this? He then spotted what must've been tops, but they were thin and skimpy and had only straps for sleeves and then there were strange looking jumpers with hoods on them. He picked one up trying to figure out what it was meant to look like.

After about two seconds he put it down again, this was certainly a weird place. Despite the oddness of the clothes, he felt the fabric in most cases was extremely soft and it all smelt like flowers or some other pleasant scent.

He closed the door shaking his head in confusion. The room was very pretty and the walls were a strange kind of deep brown, with some kind of pattern on one wall in a silvery colour. He liked it, but he'd never seen anything like it before. It was all very new.

"Come on," he muttered sifting through all the drawers in one piece of furniture, but to no avail.

No statuette kindly presented itself to him. He moved on.

There was this strange sort of bathroom: it joined onto Karina's room, but instead of a bath there was a strange box like contraption that sprayed him with freezing water when he turned one of the knobs.

"Argh," he stifled his voice fumbling for the knob to turn it off. "Ah ha!"

He turned the knob and a jet of boiling hot water sprayed in his face. He recoiled in pain. The water was spilling all over the floor making it wet and slippery. The bathroom was beginning to look more like a pond.

Wisely the prince stepped out of the line of fire and gathering his bearings, was finally able to turn the tap off. He gasped in huge lung fulls of air when he was sure the great squirty thing was dormant again. He sank to his knees; this place was deadly!

Rodrigo emerged from the bathroom soaked to the bone and ready to look in some other room in the house. It was obvious to him now that it was not in Karina's room. Someone, probably her parents, had removed it from her hand while she slept.

He took a step towards the door, his feet made horrible squishing noises on the carpet and he was sure he left a trail of drips behind him as he went.

Karina had locked her door, but it took no time at all to open it, all he had to do was turn the key.

As soon as he opened the door he froze. He could hear a loud, sonorous noise coming from down the hallway. What on earth was it? Not another dangerous contraption like the shower he prayed. A minute later he realised it was just the sound of one of Karina's parents snoring. His breathing slowed down and he proceeded into the hall.

Karina had told him the places it would probably be. She had said that if the statuette wasn't in her room then her mother or father would've probably taken it downstairs and into the lounge. The room with 'the big cushy chairs' she had told him.

Well this was it, it certainly had the chairs, but were they as comfortable as Karina had made out? He walked over to try one, he just couldn't resist. That's when he heard the noise, it was like footsteps.

He nearly screamed again, but suppressed darting is eyes around the room desperately trying to pick out a pace to hide. His eyes locked onto something else though. It was the statuette sitting silently on the mantelpiece. He ran over to it and picked it up.

"Who are you!" shouted a voice from the hall.

Rodrigo wheeled to face a man with a moustache bearing a striking resemblance to Karina. He had the same brown hair, but he didn't look as happy to see him. In fact Rodrigo would go as far a s saying that the man looked angry.

**Duh...duh...dun... what happens next?**

**I've realised that fanfic keeps omitting the lines I use to indicate a change of scene and I apologise if it was awkward to all you readers.**


	20. Chapter 19

**This was quite a fast update I think. Hope you all enjoy the story :). Read and review.**

**Runaway**

"What's the matter Winston?" asked a woman's voice, the owner appeared in the hall her eyes wide when she saw Rodrigo. "What's going on?"

"I'm not really sure," replied the man in the moustache brandishing a toothbrush like it was a sword.

"I don't think he's a thief," said the woman eyeing him up. "He looks frightened," she turned to her husband to speak more confidentially, but Rodrigo caught most of the conversation. "You don't think Karina got herself a boyfriend and didn't tell us do you?" asked the woman.

"I jolly well hope not," replied Winston. "Not some goth like this one, I shouldn't think."

"Goth?" inquired Rodrigo. It sounded like some kind of insult the way the man said it.

"Yes, with the black clothing and all that," replied the man.

Rodrigo was indignant.

"I am no goth sir. I'll have you know that my choice of attire is highly dependent on the fact that my father has come to pass on very recently," Winston's face went pale in embarrassment and shock. "I wear this colour as a sign of respect to him and it has not yet been a week since I have been parted from him."

Rodrigo's eyes were welling as he spoke his lines and the deep arrow of loss embedded itself a little further into his heart.

"Oh dear," said the woman moving towards. "Oh child, sit down. Winston get us some tea."

The woman indicated for the prince to position himself on one of the big cushy chairs as soon as her husband had left the room.

"I'm Claire," she told him. "Now tell me. What are you doing here?"

He wasn't sure how to start. The dragon statuette was hidden within his palm and Karina was waiting. How could he get out of this situation? He began to wonder whether it would have been faster just to act the thief, but unsurprisingly his pride had gotten in the way.

Sensing that the boy was at a loss for words, Claire decided to speak:

"Are you a friend of Karina's?" she prompted.

"Yes," replied Rodrigo almost without thinking.

"What are you doing round our house?"

"She invited me over this morning," he said.

"But sweetheart, Karina is asleep. How did you get in?"

"Okay," said Rodrigo with the sigh of someone about to confess. "She invited me round last night because I had nowhere to stay. My mum is an alcoholic."

Rodrigo felt like crying, it felt awful, desecrating his mother's memory like she was just an average street urchin. It was far worse than admitting she was dead. As soon as he'd said it he wished he could take it back, but Karina's mum was talking again.

"I didn't realise," she said, her tone about 50% sadder than when she'd last spoken.

There was a long pause and Winston came in with the tea, still pale-faced at his own impertinence.

"Here boy," he said. "Have a cup of tea."

Rodrigo smiled half-heartedly and took it.

"Shall I go get Karina?" asked Claire after about a minute.

"NO!" said Rodrigo suddenly. "I mean...er...I would rather go and talk to her by myself. If you don't mind," he added as an afterthought.

"No, of course not," said Claire.

"Thank you," said Rodrigo and made his way towards the stairs. He could hear the couple in the lounge discussing him. No doubt Claire had filled her husband in on the details of his appearance.

Karina's room was unlocked when he found it and she was still on the bed. He locked the door and made his way towards the bed. Carefully he climbed in so as not to disturb Karina's body and placed the statue in her hand before falling asleep next to her.

"Rodrigo!" exclaimed Karina as his eyes flicked open beside her.

She was holding the dragon statuette firmly in one hand and looked ever so relieved that he was indeed alive.

"I'm back?" asked Rodrigo groggily.

"Yeah," agreed Karina. "I need to be out of here then. Thanks for getting this back." She waggled the statuette at him. "Bye."

She lay back on his bed and closed her eyes.

"Wait," said Rodrigo shaking her arm.

"What?" she asked opening her eyes again and looking slightly annoyed.

"I have to come back with you."

"What?" she said disbelieving her ears. "I'm sure I'll be fine."

She made as if to go to sleep again.

"No, I kind off told your parents I had run away from my mum after my father's death because she was an alcoholic," he blurted out.

"Was she?"

"No," he said angrily. Rodrigo checked himself at her expression of surprise. "Sorry," he murmured.

"Why did you tell them that?" she asked.

"Because they caught me in your house and I had to think on my feet," he explained, flustered.

"Right so how does this have anything to do with you being at my house?" she enquired.

"You're my benevolent friend who lent me shelter when I was in need and took me in when I was without a place to go," he said poetically.

"That sounds like something out of Shakespeare," she said sarcastically.

"Shakespeare?" asked Rodrigo.

"Never mind," Karina shook her head. "Let's just go back and see how things go."

She held out her hand for him to take, he did so. At least this way they wouldn't get separated from each other in the realms of stravagation.

"Night," said Karina as she closed her eyes for the last time. "See you on the other side."

**The action shifts to our world :) **


	21. Chapter 20

**It has been a while, but here's the next chapter. Can you believe this is chapter 20! (not counting the prologue) Seems unbelievable.**

**Sorry my updates are so irregular :), but enjoy anyway. **

**Capture**

"Karina," said her mother as she came downstairs. "Your father and I would like a word with you"

"Sure," she said motioning for Rodrigo to stay in the lounge on the sofa while she spoke to her parents in the kitchen. They were both still wearing their pajamas and wore torn expressions on their faces. As soon as they were out of sight Karina hastily said: "He's only staying for a night."

The look of worry on both faces seemed to almost completely disappear. Karina felt kind of good that she was having a proper talk to her parent s for once. Most of the time they didn't have any time for her.

"That's good," said her father a little too relieved than was perhaps acceptable, but Karina ignored it.

Her plan was to get out of this and take Rodrigo out of the house as soon as possible so that he could get back to Talia and she could resume her normal life. From the moment she'd seen her parents face she decided to never to allow Rodrigo back to her house ever again. He had seemed a little dazed by all the modern stuff here anyway. She could guess he wasn't too fond of it.

"Where will he stay now?" asked Karina's mother looking concerned.

"Oh he'll be fine," replied Karina. "His mum is recovering from her problem quite rapidly, it was just last night she was worst than normal and Rodrigo needed a place to stay so I offered to let him stay here."

"Well, if this is the only time we'll let you off," said her father turning round to grab a piece of toast from the toaster and spreading it with butter and jam so that he could eat.

"Okay," agreed Karina. "Thanks guys."

With that she scurried out of the room in search of Rodrigo. Passing the mirror she caught sight of her reflection. Her face looked nice and clear from her night's sleep, but her eyes were underlined with purple rings and her hair looked as though someone had brushed it in every direction at the same time and it looked more like a lion's auburn mane. She sighed, she would see to it after Rodrigo had gone.

The morning woke Enrico with the flight of birds. He heard the unified screeches and flapping of wings that warned him that trouble was afoot. There was somebody or something nearby. Unfortunately the warning wasn't enough: the next moment a man appeared in the entrance to the cave blocking out the sun and casting a long thin shadow onto the floor.

It took Enrico only moments to assess his situation. He could see a long scar reaching up the mans bare arm that was outstretched towards him with a sword, menacing yet held in defensive position ready to block any attempt by Enrico.

"You going to come quietly?" inquired the man.

The ring on his finger revealed the di Chimici seal. He knew who this man was. He'd heard of him before. Ruthless as a animal and brutal as a bear though wiry and agile like an acrobat. Enrico didn't fancy his chances, but his days of cowardice were over.

He stood calmly aware his sword was still attached to his belt. The man he was facing was aware of this too. He pointed to it with his own.

"Remove it!" he barked.

Enrico slowly drew his sword from it's sheath, the man's eyes followed the movement warily. It was just a matter of timing, Enrico told himself. Just a matter of timing. He would have to pick his moment . Enrico was no master swordsman, but if there was ever a time to be one it was now.

Slowly he lowered his weapon towards the ground, he could see the man's muscles relaxing slightly, then at the last second Enrico lunged. His opponent brought his sword round just in time to parry the blow and followed through with one of his own, but Enrico dodged.

Their swords clashed again and again, the horses' restless whinnying could be heard echoing from outside. They could sense the danger. The other man's blows got faster and stronger and Enrico felt the adrenalin coursing through his veins forcing him to defend himself, but his opponent was wearing him down and soon enough he felt a sharp tingling in his wrist and the sword fell to the ground.

The man advanced, but before he was close enough Enrico dropped to the floor and rolled to come up behind the man elbowing him in the head with all the force he could muster. The man stumbled forwards dazed and clutching his head with his free hand. His sword arm hung almost limply.

Enrico was about to attack again when the man spun round, a move that seemed to pain him and held his sword towards Enrico. There was nowhere to go, he was cornered between the wall and the stranger's sword.

He moved an inch just to make sure he had tried, but the man's sword came even closer to his throat so that the point tickled his neck. Enrico gulped, he was done. Behind his back his yellowing nails carved as good a message as he could muster on the stone wall. It paimed him trying to carve it out.

"You're lucky my masters want you," the man breathed heavily the point of the sword shuddering ever so slightly. "If not I'd have slit your throat here and now."

Enrico thought it best not to respond to the man with his eyes that glowed with hatred and something else. Where had he seen this person before? He resembled somebody, but not a di Chimici, somebody else. The name Guiditta Miele sprung to mind and Enrico had to bite back tears.

"You're coming with me," snarled the man.

He hadn't noticed the sadness on Enrico's face and he set about easily tying the mans hands before leading him out of the cave and to a horse that stood silently awaiting them. Enrico thought carefully about the strong palomino stallion they rode as the man steered them back down the mountains.

As the cave disappeared from sight, he couldn't help but think of Karina. He hoped she would find his message, it was perhaps his only hope of ever being free again.

**And so the plot thickens. Hope you like it :) Read and review.**


	22. Chapter 21

**If you don't remember anything about the black lionesses go back and read the prologue. Aside that please enjoy the next instalment of the story.**

**Black Lionesses**

Enrico felt the rough shake on his shoulder, he tried to ignore it, he was so tired. The hand shook harder jolting him onto his back. He opened eyes, he was awake. He couldn't remember much. He looked around him, he was awake. He didn't know when he had fallen asleep or where he was, but he was awake.

The light was dull, but through the bleak light he could see a few things. In his line of vision in every direction were polished black boots belonging to masked figures that now surrounded him in a circular fashion. The masks were painted a vibrant red with black rimmed eyes and a small hole for the wearer to speak through. They certainly knew how to look intimidated. Enrico knew these people must be part of a gang.

"The prisoner's awake," announced one and the others fell silent.

Enrico looked to the owner of the voice. This figure wore no mask and Enrico recognised as the man who he'd fought in the cave. Where had he brought him?

"Where am I?" asked Enrico groggily.

A foot came out of nowhere and struck his thigh.

"You will speak when spoken to," said a husky-voiced man to his right.

Silently Enrico smarted, his feelings of curiosity replaced for a moment by hatred.

The one he recognised spoke again and now Enrico saw the outfits the men wore were the same. They ported long black and red cloaks and their clothes were all black save their belts. With a sinking feeling Enrico realised who they were: the guild of architects whose main purpose was communication with Remora, one of the di Chimici strongholds in Talia.

"You're the Black Lionesses," he mumbled before he could stop himself.

Another foot hit him square in the arm, he gritted his teeth not to cry out.

"Congratulations, Enrico. I am indeed Gorosimo, leader of the Black Lionesses and you," he savoured the word as though it were a pensive thought. "Have information to tell us. Do you not?"

The man sounded so insistent in an unhinged way. Enrico had heard people speak like that before, he still remembered the cold chill of the late Grand Duke's obsession. He shivered involuntarily, but the Black Lionesses didn't seem to notice, or if they did they didn't do anything.

"I do?" asked Enrico.

The leader slapped him hard on the cheek.

"You know what a stravagante is?" he said pulling Enrico to his knees by the front of his shirt.

Karina, they were talking about Karina! Why was it that every time he threw in with the good guys things always turned out worse for him. Still, he wasn't going to tell them anything. He knew why these people wanted to know, he knew who wanted to know. Gorosimo's ring flashed in the dim light showing the seal of the di Chimicis.

"I don't know what your-"

"Don't lie to me," Gorosimo cut in sharply. "I can tell when people are lying."

Enrico thought the man might slap him again, but to his surprise he let go of him.

"Now you're a reasonable man Enrico," said Gorosimo, his hand seemed to be fiddling with something that the old spy could not make out, but he had a feeling he knew what it was. "We would, of course reward you handsomely for your information."

Enrico almost groaned out loud, what was it with rich people and thinking they could buy him off? He wasn't into that trade anymore. For a moment his mind longed for the good old days when he controlled the entire spy network of Giglia. Now though, he had given it all up because he had done something terrible in his past, something he could never forgive himself for.

Gorosimo tossed the object he was holding towards Enrico. The silver coin clattered lazily to the floor like a treat for a dog. These people had no respect for anyone. It hardened Enrcio's resolve seeing the coin lying disdainfully on the floor. He thought of all the boys he'd taken in off the streets, he thought of all the beggars and vagabonds he saw roaming the streets or sitting, huddled in a back alley on a cold winter's night. They would kill for a proper silver coin and yet here was this young man strutting around playing dress up.

Well Enrico sure wasn't going to do anything for them.

"I don't want your money," he spat disgusted.

"Perhaps," replied Gorosimo mildly as if it didn't faze him.

"And I don't know what your talking about and even if I did I wouldn't tell you!" said Enrico then boldly added: "I'd rather die."

"That can be arranged," smiled the man with a wild and lustful look in his eye. "But I suppose you already know all about that."

The comment hit home so brutally that Enrico found tears springing to his eyes. Was it just him or was there a sorrow in the man's voice? How did this kid know? Who did he remind him of? Images of the beautiful Guiditta filled his head. Her smile, her lips, her face all radiant in the glorious Talian sun. It had been such a long time, but he still remembered her face as clear as day.

The pain was too much to bear and Enrico doubled over. Then it struck him, the boy was Guiditta's brother: Gorosimo Miele.

**Is anybody still reading this or is my stats thing broken?**


	23. Chapter 22

**So this chapter is for **_**Stravaganza**_** for reviewing so fervently. Thanks, I really appreciate it and this is for you ;)**

**Moving**

Arianna could sense movement. She had fallen into a deep sleep again, but now she felt the gentle swing of some kind of cart. She looked up. There was wood above her and straw below her. Her skin prickled a little where she touched it.

Where were these people taking her? That was the question. She suspected the di Chimici, but she had not seen a recognisable face in all the time she'd been there. However long that was. She had drifted in and out of consciousness so much that she had no idea any more of time.

Where were they taking her? Where had she been for that matter?

She still felt groggy and her sight wasn't the best. Her eyes seemed to drift in and out of focus. They had drugged her before, numerous times, but here she had a feeling that somebody had made a mistake.

They had probably intended for Arianna to be out of it for this journey. After all, now was when she was most likely to escape. She was very surprised to find that they hadn't tied her hands together.

With difficulty she pushed herself to her knees. She swayed a bit with the movement of the carriage, but she managed to keep steady. She made her way through the straw to the side of the carriage where she could spy a reasonably large hole. Perhaps she could look out to see where she was.

A cord tugged at her ankle very slightly and she realised she was tied up. Her eyes followed the rope to a wooden beam on the other side of the cart.

The cart lurched suddenly and Arianna was thrown against the wooden side by the driver making a sharp turn. Her cheek smarted as she righted herself, but the pain felt numbed. She guessed it must be the remnants of the anaesthetic.

She picked herself up and put her eye up against the hole, her sight had cleared now. Outside she saw the countryside passing behind her and the hills ahead. She recognised those hills. Where had she seen them before.

Racking her brain she found a painting forming in her head. It hung in the gallery back home in Bellezza. It had these hills in it. Perhaps a little more dramatic, but it had been the these hills. She remembered the plaque underneath. These were the hills of Romula. Why were they bringing her here?

-o-

Karina breathed a sigh of relief. Rodrigo had been successfully returned to Talia and now she could relax. Then she realised that Enrico would be waiting for her in the cave. She would have to go back tonight. He would be expecting her.

She made the most of the day completing all the work she had to.

The other stravagantes from her world had given her their number, but she couldn't bring herself to call them. She didn't really feel like talking to them. She'd had a lucky escape with Rodrigo's story and she didn't want any more friends round. Her parents suspicious metre would probably go off the scale if she invited them all round.

Her homework was all done by nine o'clock and she decided to get an early night. She had managed to mainly dodge her parents questions by artfully changing the subject. Who've thought a runaway child would link so well with daily politics?

She smiled to herself and gripped the statuette tightly under her covers until her knuckles were white. Karina did not want another repeat of last night.

Soon though she was asleep and she woke up on the rocky floor of a cave.

Looking around she could tell something was wrong. The bowls were scattered over the floor and the bedding looked as though it had been shredded by a sword. There was no Enrico insight. She went outside to see if he was there.

The rocks looked barren and there wasn't hide or hair of a human anywhere. Still she called out all the same. She didn't want to miss him.

"Enrico," she said, then again louder. "Enrico."

The only answer she got was the swishing leaves of the trees.

Unhinged a little she went back inside. Where was Enrico? It wasn't like him to just disappear without warning. He had to be here somewhere. She went further back into the cave when a letter caught her eye.

Well it sort of looked like a letter. It was a wobbly kind of _K_. She went over to it. Underneath in the same odd script were the letters_ SOS_.

Karina gasped. This had to be a message for her, probably from Enrico. Something had happened to him and in a hurry he had scrawled his message on the wall. She could tell from the roughness of his letters.

Where had he gone though? How could she fetch help if she didn't know where he was? Perhaps she should go back to the palace and tell Rodrigo.

Out of the corner of her eye Karina saw a movement in the back of the cave. She whipped round, but there were only shadows. She moved closer intent on finding out what it was. The cave got darker as she moved.

Slowly her steps brought her further and further into the cave. The light was disappearing as she moved, but she saw another movement. It was swift and darting, like a rodent or something, but much bigger.

Her breath was heavy and her heart was pounding. There was some kind of creature in this cave. Whatever it was she wasn't sure whether she wanted to see it. She had stopped moving forwards and squinted again into the darkness.

A shape moved towards her, she closed her eyes ready for the impact, but it never the came. The creature had stopped. It was only inches from her face now. She could feel its meaty breath on her face. She wanted to run, but she had heard that in such circumstances it was better not to move. Plus the thing could probably outrun her anyway.

The face withdrew and Karina allowed herself to open her eyes just a crack.

She was not prepared for what met her on the other side.

It was a beautiful creature, sparkling in hues of green and gold. The face was sharp and defined, but the eyes were kind and knowing. It had the appearance of a lizard, but much, much taller. The teeth were razor sharp and the claws looked deadly.

This was the kind of animal you only ever read about in stories and yet it was here. It was a dragon.

**So now the dragons have arrived... Comments?**


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